Massive Corruption Under Buhari's Watch; Senate Queries Buhari’s Appointment Of Firm As TSA Consultants…Gets N25b, Commission

The Senate has  ordered an  investigation into the alleged payment of N25 billion commission to a private consultancy firm, REMITA ‎ from N2.5 trillion moped up in Treasury Single Account (TSA). The firm which has high profile contacts in government,  was contracted by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in contravention of Section 161 (2) of the constitution.

Few months ago Buhari had directed that  consultants be  shut out of assessing and collecting tax revenue on behalf of the federal government to save cost. The appointment of REMITA by Buhari  was the same way he handed over PTF to a single consultant, Afri-Projects Consortium (APC), as the sole adviser to the Fund. This agency- Afri-Projects Consortium – was given the exclusive power to initiate projects, assess their probable cost, approve the costs, execute the projects, and assess the quality of execution. The total income accruing to the Fund from mid-1994 to July 1999 was in excess of N181 billion.

Senator Dino Mealaye had on wednesday informed his colleagues about the appointment of REMITA as an agent for the operation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) by the Central Bank of Nigeria. He however, noted that the appointment of agent negates and contravene section 162(1) of the 1999 constitution which provides.

That-” The federation shall maintain a Special Account to be called “The Federation Account” into which all revenue collected by the government of the Federation, except the proceeds from the personal income tax of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Ministry or Department of government charged with foreign Affairs and the residents of the FCT Abuja.”

Speaking further, Senator Melaye said, the provision of the constitution empowers, the Central Bank of Nigeria as the sole institution that is mandated to collect and disburse money on behalf of ‎ the federal government.

Meanwhile, the Senate leader, Senator Mohammed Ndume, in his contribution said he had called the CBN governor, Godwin Emefile to confirm the issue from but ‎Apex Bank governor said he was not aware of the commission.

On his part, Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah said that there was need for Senate to identify the firm involved in the Commission. “I will lead all the youth in the country in a national protest against the Federal government if nothing is done. 

I was a banker for over 12 years and I was a commissioner of finance for seven and a half year. This is the height of criminality. We did not need a 3rd party to ensure compliance on TSA,” Senator Bassey Albert Akpan (PDP, Akwa Ibom, North-East) Source; Pointblanknews.com