Public Account Committee (PAC) of the House of Representatives has urged the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Services, (FIRS) Alhaji Muhammad Mamman Nami to immediately resign his appointment, if he cànnot discharge his constitutional responsibilities effectively.
The Committee also gave Nami, 18 hours within which to appear before it or be sanctioned accordingly.
Chairman of the Committee, Busayo Oluwole Oke (PDP-OSUN) handed down the order while ruling on the failure of the FIRS boss to honour the invitation of the parliament, currently probing the huge dwidling revenues of the Federal Government as reported by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
At the resumption of the Committee session on Wednesday, the FIRS Chairman was billed to appear before the Committee on non payment of taxes to the Government by three foreign firms, Indorama Petrochemical, Indorama fertilizer and Petrochemical Ltd and OIS Indorama Eleme Port-Harcourt but absent and sent a representation.
Two of the firm’s were said to be enjoying duty waivers and capital allowances while the third one was said to be operating at the Export Free Zone in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, thus causing huge loss of revenues to the nation.
Following this development, Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Abdullahi Sa’ad Abdulkadir decried the absence of the FIRS boss at such an important hearing which would have assisted the Parliarment in unmasking the sources of the leakages of Government revenues and blocked such once.
The Committee unanimously endorsed the motion and gave him 10.00 am Thursday to appear in person, failure which he would be sanctioned in line with the Constitution of the land.
However, the representative of the FIRS boss, Olusegun Olatunji pleaded with the Committee for the absence of his Chairman which he attributed to the lateness of the letter of invitation.
The Chairman of the Committee, Oke expressed dismay over the lukewarm attitudes of the Heads of Ministries Departments and Agencies MDAs of the Federal Government to their constitutional responsibilities on accountability.
The Chairman said; “this Parliarment is the symbol of democracy, we are the Representatives of the people, if President Muhammadu Buihari can course appearance before the Parliarment whenever the need be, why not his appointees;enough is enough, if the FIRS boss can not perform his constitutional responsibilities, he should turn in his letter of resignation immediately.
“Is this how he wants to pay Mr President who gave him the appointment? The nation is losing billions of Naira from tax evasion on daily basis, and the man in charge is expected to come to the Parliarment so that a solution can be found on how to stop the urgly development but he has refused to honor the invitation.
“Looking at the seriousness of this issue, the FIRS boss is to course physical appearance before this Honourable Committee by 10.00 am on Thursday, we are determined to stop this nonsense, the nation is bleeding,” he added.
