Senate summons Auditor General over unaudited immigration’s account

The Senate Committee on Finance has invited the Auditor General of the Federation, Mr Aghughu Arhotomhenia, to appear before it next week Tuesday.

The invitation was sequel to a revelation before the Committee by the Comptroller General of Immigration, Mr Mohammed Babandede.

The Comptroller General of Immigration had while giving an explanation on non-auditing of NIS account since 2017 said the agency was not given guidelines for the auditing of the accounts, despite repeated letters to the office of the Auditor General of the Federation to provide the guidelines.

The Immigration boss further told the Committee led by Senator representing Lagos West, Solomon Adeola Olamilekan, that the revenue-generating operations of the agency are under a public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement that he inherited with a sharing formula agreement that cannot be readily renegotiated or cancelled in the foreseeable future leaving the agency to remit only about 20 % of revenue generated to the Federal Government.

Senator Adeola directed the Immigration boss to furnish the committee with a comprehensive account of its revenue and the sharing in specific terms as well as details of the partners in the PPP deal as the committee intends to interact with the NIS partners.

He said: “There is a need to seriously interrogate the PPP arrangement and its duration as it seems to be an unending denial of needed revenue for Nigeria. A situation where partners collect 70 per cent, leaving Immigration and Federal Government to share 30 per cent over the unending period of time is looking more like a Pick Pocket Partnership arrangement for Nigeria that should be remedied.”

The chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance said with the experience of Nigeria on PPP arrangement on the issue of passport and other immigration documents, there is a need for the National Assembly to come up with legislation to guide and regulate such partnerships as the present ad hoc system is shortchanging the Federal Government.

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Senate summons Auditor General over unaudited immigration’s account