The newly appointed Chairman of
the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami, on Monday launched a
veiled criticism of his predecessor in office, Babatunde Fowler, accusing his
management of superintending a steady decline in revenue collection by the
service since the inception of his tenure in 2015.
It was meant to be the new
chairman’s first Christmas message and felicitation to the revenue service
staff since his assumption of office on December 19.
But, he used the message to carry
out a performance assessment of Mr Fowler’s management, accusing it of failing
to maintain the “impressive performance” the agency recorded since 2011, with
2012 as the benchmark year for outstanding performance.
Reviewing the performance and
workforce of the service between 2011 and 2019, Mr Nami took a jab at Mr
Fowler, saying “despite the rise in Service workforce, the engagement of
consultants, the rise in inflation and the exchange rates, the tax revenue
collection (of the FIRS) continues to dwindle.”
Commending the FIRS staffers for
“displaying the spirit of steadfastness, resilience, perseverance and deftness
in the discharge of your assigned responsibilities,” he urged then to use the
yuletide holiday to ponder over the past and resolve to resume refreshed and
better prepared to serve.
He also made reference to 2012,
three years before Mr Fowler’s appointment, as the best year for the FIRS.
“As a result of your uncommon
commitment to duty, 2012 especially, you were able to raise Five Trillion,
Seven Billion Naira even without active participation of consultants and with
moderate inflation and exchange rates. I want to be positive that this
impressive performance is achievable again,” the Chairman reminded the workers.
Fowler’s tenure
Mr Fowler was appointed the
Chairman of FIRS in August 2015. On assumption of office, he introduced the use
of tax consultants in the collection of tax revenues and other services, a
policy brought forward from his time as the Director of the Lagos State Revenue
Service.
Despite the controversy that
trailed the use of tax consultants to carry out services thousands of regular
FIRS staff were competent and qualified to render, Mr Fowler sustained the
policy till the end of his tenure last December 9.
On August 8, the presidency,
through the Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari, queried Mr Fowler over
“observed significant variances between the budgeted collections and actual
collections for the period 2015 to 2018.”
The presidency accused Mr Fowler
of consistently not being able to meet his collection target since assumption
of office in 2015.
The query indicated that in 2015,
although the FIRS set a revenue target of N4.7 trillion, it was only able to
make N3.7 trillion in actual collection.
In 2016, 2017 and 2018, the
presidency said from target collections of N4.2 trillion, N4.8 trillion and
N6.7 trillion, the actual collections were N3.3 trillion, N4.0 trillion and
N5.3 trillion, respectively.
A presidential spokesperson,
Garba Shehu explained that the reason Mr Fowler’s tenure was not renewed as the
chairman of the FIRS was that the poor performance of the service under his
management irked the president, who queried him over insufficient tax
collection since 2015.
Revenue performance between 2011 and 2019
The new FIRS Chairman said a
review of the revenue performance of the service between 2011 and 2019 showed
that although the agency had fewer staff in 2011 (6,445), its actual revenue
collection (N4.629 trillion) exceeded set collection target of N3.639 trillion
by about 127.2 per cent.
However, since 2015, despite a
higher number of staff (7,182), the FIRS was unable to meet the revenue target
of N4.572 trillion, realizing only N3.7 trillion in actual revenue collection.
Also, in 2016, a FIRS revenue
collection target of N4.9 trillion, could only realize N3.3 trillion, using
equally larger number of staff (7,182).
In 2019, although revenue
collection target was about N8.802 trillion, the FIRS was only able to realize
only N5.008 trillion, despite using the largest number of staff (9,448).
Mr Nami also urged the FIRS staff
to embrace the virtues of integrity, probity and accountability by resolving
“not to negotiate with taxpayers and pocket the revenue due to the Federal
Government,” apparently making a veiled reference to what may have been the
practice under the immediate past management.
“I therefore urge you all to take
advantage of the current staff-friendly environment now in place to redouble
your efforts to reverse the obvious downward trend, and to ensure that the
current target is not only achieved, but also doubled before the end of 2020.
“No doubt, the task is daunting.
But, with dogged spirit, integrity, probity and accountability as well as the
resolve not negotiate with taxpayers and pocket the revenue due to the Federal
Government, the current challenges can be surmounted and our ambitious target
achieved or surpassed,” Mr Nami told the staff.
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