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…to publish audit queries against Oil and Gas Free Zone, Ministry of Industry
The House of Representatives on Monday alleged that some agencies of government such as the Federal Miitry of Industry Trade and Investment nd the Oil and Gas free Zone Authority were frustrating its efforts at varying out its assigned constitutional responsibilities.
The Houe Committee on Public Account resolved to publish audit queries agiainst such agencies so that Nigerians can make informed judgment arising from the audit queries.
The Committee had reported the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment to the President for failing to appear before it to respond to the issue raised in the Audit query against his Ministry
Of some agencies of government who have refused to appear before its Committee on Public Account to defend such heroes from the office of the Auditor general of the Federation.
Chairman of the Committee, Rep Oluwole Oke said at the sitting of the Committee on Monday that several invitations to the Federal ministry of Industry to come and clarify whether it actually issued coms certificate of capital allowances to some companies have not been respected by the Minitry.
He also alleged that the Oil and Gas Free Zone Authority have failed to come and explain to the House why it failed to issue reciept to come companies after collecting money from them in dollars, or explain where the money is.
Oke said “We have invited all the regulators. Federal Ministry of Industry, Oil and Gas Free zone Authority, Onne, Standard Organisation of Nigerian and they are supposed to appear today. But they are not here.
“All the companies listed by the regulators, some of them are here, but the regulators are not here. From the evidences presented by thee companies, we discovered that a company’s capital allowances rose from N4 billion to N33 billion within a year and thy brought the certificate here for us to see.
“We called Ministry of Industry to come and confirm whethe the issued the certificate or not. If you issued a certificate for a foreign asset, an asset acquired outside the country, at least, there will be import duty, there wil be receipt.
“Ministry of Industry, did you inspect the asset before you issued certificate of N33 billion? Those are the questions we are asking industry to come and answer. They have refused to come.
“Oil and Gas Free Zone collected money in dollars from licensees and refused to issue receipt to them. All the licensees thatbhave appeared before this panel said thy were to issued receipts. Oil and gas Freee Zone, come and tell Nigerians why you did not issue them receipts and where is our money?
“The Minister of Finance has said severally that we will continue to borrow money to finance our budget because we have revenue gaps nd because we are unable to collect the revenue we should have collected. The parliament cannot fold its hands.
“The difference between tax invasion and tax avoidance is very narrow. so, our ruling is that I want us to publish all the queries in three national dailies and all the regulators concerned and licensees who made allegations that they paid XYZ; AGIP was here and many other nd they showed us evidence of paying money in dollars. Is three million dollars a joke?
“So, let Nigerians be aware that we are not witch hunting anybody. This Committee has what we called Legilative maturity. We speak to issues and that is the law. So, Mr. Clerk, situate the queries in three national dailies and the agencies affected and the licensees who appeared before us to make these allegations.
“Arab Contractors was here and their Tax Officer and Chief Accoutant alleged that She had to pay money to industry, but whether it is bribe or gift, I dont know before they were issued their certificate.
“Our take away from this hearing is whether the existing las are working. If they are not working, do we need to repeal it, do we need to amend it