Audit report: Senate clears Customs of N62.2 bn under‑remittance query

The Senate Public Accounts Committee, SPAC, vacated a N62.2 billion under‑remittance query against the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) during its Tuesday session, following the 2019 audit report by the Office of the Auditor‑General of the Federation (OAuGF).

In the same session, the committee, led by SPAC Chairman Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo of Gombe North, agreed to establish a small committee to reconcile the remaining 76 queries that were raised against the Service in the 2019 and 2020 audit reports.

The discussion focused on the first 77 queries alleging financial irregularities at Customs.

A representative of the Auditor‑General read Query 1: “In 2017, while N691.242 billion was Customs’ total revenue collection, only N629.23 billion was remitted, leaving a balance of N62.2 billion allegedly unremitted into the Federation Account.”

Comptroller‑General of Customs Bashir Adewale Adeniyi replied that the N62.2 billion classified as “unremitted” was incorrectly calculated because levies collected on behalf of other agencies had been misclassified.

“The under‑remittance of N62.2 billion levelled against Customs in the 2019 audit report was wrongly arrived at through misclassification of levies collected,” Adeniyi said. “While most levies are to be collected and remitted into the Federation Account, others—such as those on local production of wheat, textiles and wines—do not go into the Federation Account. The totality of these accounted for the alleged unremitted N62.2 billion,” he explained.

The committee accepted the explanation and cleared Customs of the N62.2 billion query.

Adeniyi also provided clarifications on Queries 2 and 3, which satisfied the committee.

Senator Babangida Hussaini of Jigawa North West questioned why the queries had reached the investigative stage. “I was in the civil service, just like the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Ibrahim Dankwabo, before venturing into politics. Queries 1, 2 and 3 that you have responded to should have been discarded at the reconciliation level with the auditors and not allowed to get to this stage,” he said.

Adeniyi reminded the committee that the years under review were marked by strained relations between the Senate and the Nigeria Customs Service.

Based on the Customs’ explanations, SPAC resolved to set up a small committee to meet with the Service and reconcile the remaining 74 queries. The committee said the reconciliation panel would fast‑track the resolution of the outstanding audit queries without further delay.