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Overdepence on oil, cause of corruption - FIRS

Thursday, 28 August 2008

Nigeria’s overdependence on oil revenue with its attendant laxity on the part of the three tiers of government to explore other sources of revenue is one of the reasons the country is enmeshed in corruption.

This was the view of Mrs. Ifueko Omoigui Okauru, the Chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) in a paper entitled “Generation and Management of Internal Revenue :Issues and Challenges” delivered at the EFCC/ALGON National Workshop held at the EFCC Training and Research Institute (TRI) Karu, Abuja on Wednesday August 27, 2008.

Okauru posited that if governments especially the local government councils could only look inwards to source for revenue through tourism and investment initiatives, the temptation to wait for funds from state and federal allocations, only for it to be misappropriated would be minimally reduced.

While saying that revenue generation and its effective management are critically important for the survival of the local government councils, she berated some local government officials especially, chairmen, for instituting personal and unofficial revenue generation machineries thereby encouraging multiple -taxation and placing heavy burden on tax payers. “Many local government chairmen generate personal taxes for personal gains using the so called levy collectors who themselves have multiple receipts.”

The FIRS boss urged the participants to carefully read the National Tax Policy draft document to enable them understand the country’s tax system and its role in the overall tax policy. She bemoaned the level of underdevelopment in the country citing the gap between the poor and the rich as unacceptable.

On the management of the revenue generated, Okauru advised the local government councils to focus on specific projects. “Focus your generation on specific projects. Having a definite plan on how to manage the funds for the project.” She further cautioned them against taking undue advantage of their position stressing that theirs were opportunities to serve. “You have a unique opportunity to make a difference where others have failed. In doing this, bear in mind that giving cash to people is not the solution but rather, building enduring institutions like hospitals, schools, roads, etc that will endure.”

In another paper “Entrenching Prudent Procurement Practices in Local Government Expenditure: Due Process, Issues and Challenges” delivered at the session by Engineer. Emeka Eze of the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), noted that the local government areas, “having fallen into all the entities which derive at least 35% of funds appropriated or proposed to be appropriated for any type of procurement described in this Act from the Federation Share of the Consolidated Revenue funds, the Chairmen or officers of the councils are liable under the Act.”

Describing economy and efficiency, competition- which provides level playing grounds for all strata of bidders, value for money and transparency as the core objectives of the regulatory agency, Ezeh enjoined the participants to always ensure transparency in the procurement processes. He said that advertising for solicitation of bids in national newspapers, public opening of bids, bid evaluation to ascertain eligibility, must be followed to determine and select the lowest evaluated responsive bid.

The BPP boss warned of the consequence of violating the laws regarding procurement which include but not restricted to, bid rigging, collusion, splitting of contracts and using fake documents for bidding saying that a jail term of between 5 to 10 years awaits violators without option of fine.

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