N30 trillion probe: Senate to publish names of culpable companies

THE Senate joint committee on Customs and Excise,  headed by Senator Hope Uzodinma,  said, on Sunday, that it was set to publish names of companies found culpable in its investigation into the alleged N30 trillion revenue scam in the import and export value chain.

The committee, which briefed newsmen on Sunday, in Abuja, said it had completed the first batch of investigations involving over 60 companies.

The committee said it was ready to unveil the names of companies found to be culpable in the N30 trillion loss of revenue by the Federal Government.

The Senator said the companies to be named had been found to have committed a level of infraction in the ongoing probe.

He said the names to be published would contain details of how much of recoverable government revenue was with each of the companies.

He also disclosed that companies found to be involved in infractions bordering on money laundering and foreign exchange abuses would be referred to Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution and recovery of the monies.

According to him, companies involved in offences bordering on smuggling and import infractions would be referred to the Nigeria Customs Service.

He said: “We have gotten up to the point that even the companies themselves have seen that they are culpable and that is why we want to publish the names and hand them over to EFCC and Customs.

“The reason for the delay in publishing the names all the while is to establish culpability against the companies.

“Now through various reconciliations, it has been established and we are no longer in doubt, including the companies that are involved, that these things are in existence and that they are culpable.

“We have presented the interim report which detailed how much we have recovered so far and the Senate approved it in plenary, while an extension was given to us to do the final reconciliation.

“We do not want the emphasis to continue to be on how much we have recovered even though it is contained in the report. We want those companies found culpable to go to the government and make payments,’’ he said.

The chairman further said “some of the companies have started paying while others have not. None of them has fully paid what we have established against them.

“Since they have started paying, we will now transfer the matter to the Customs, who will now do a recovery schedule with the companies that are willing voluntarily to pay what is due to government.

“By the time the names are published, Nigerians and the Federal Government will know which company is owing what and the relevant agencies will go after them to recover the money,’’

Uzodinma said after the release of the first batch of offenders, the committee would commence the second batch of investigation and also perform some oversight visits to the culpable companies.

The Senator stated that was appalling that in spite of government’s effort to improve revenue, some organisations were still hell-bent on jeopardising the efforts.

The Senate had mandated the committee to carry out a holistic investigation into alleged N30 trillion revenue leakages in federal agencies between 2006 and 2017.

In its interim report presented to the Senate on October 18, he disclosed that it had so far recovered N140 billion.

The interim stated that following its investigations, some revenue generating agencies made remittances to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to the tune of N128 billion.

The report also stated that some of the 60 companies made voluntary payment of over N12 billion to the government based on internal self-audit after receiving documented evidence of culpability from the committee.

The report also identified 32 revenue leakage channels, which, it said, accounted for the huge loss to the government.