The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, retired Colonel Hameed Ali, on Thursday disowned the report of the Accountant General of the Federation, Ahmed Idris, on differentials of N28 billion, which was said to have been underremitted into the Federation Account in 2015.
The Auditor-General of the Federation, Anthony Ayine, had in his Financial Statement for 2015 queried the Accountant General over differentials in the amount remitted by the NCS and the figures contained in his own records.
According to the report, the Customs remitted N185 billion as against the sum of N157 billion in the Chief Accountant’s document.
The Accountant General, who was represented by Feyintola Olusegun, a Director in his office, had earlier referred the Auditor-General and the Senate Panel to the Customs Service for clarification.
But the Customs boss, who personally appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts, said the query was strange to the Service because the mode of Customs collections are purely automated.
“For anybody to pointing at us, then there is a problem,” he said.
The Accountant-General made what appeared a U-turn with a new explanation that the N28 billion was for ECOWAS Stabilisation Fund for 2015.
Ali’s latest explanation did not quite sit well with the lawmakers, especially as it was not reflected in his earlier written submission to the Senate Panel and unable to provide documentary evidence to back up his claim.
On the query of non-remittance of pension fund, Ali admitted that his command defaulted in 2015 because it did not have sufficient funds to meet up with the obligation.
This was as the Accountant General came under fire over unpaid domestic loan of N37.8 billion borrowed from 10 per cent Rice Level Account for urgent expenditure in 2013.
The Senate Panel questioned why the Accountant General failed to include the loan in the budget since then.
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