An exclusive document obtained by THE POINT has revealed how government officials, political appointees and consultants perpetrated frauds running into billions of naira under the administration of immediate past governor of Benue State, Samuel Ortom....Read Full Article >>➤
Equally shocked at the level of pilfering of government resources, Ortom had ordered an investigation into the operations of Board of Internal Revenue Service from August 2015 to June 2019; tax deductions and remittances by Ministries, Departments and Agencies that execute projects/programmes and consultancies from June 2015 to June 2019; salary issues in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources using salary payment vouchers for the month of June, 2019.
The Chairman of the four-man panel was Matthew Uyina, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. Other members were A.I. Imande, Director of Administration & Supplies, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning; Godfrey Agada, Director, Treasury Operations, Office of the Accountant General; and Yahuza Igyuse, Director, Finance and Accounts, Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.
Igyuse also served as the panel’s secretary.
The report was submitted in August, 2019.
The panel indicted many individuals and organisations, including Mrs. Mini Adzape-Orubibi; Mr. Terzungwe Atser; Egghead Tax Consultants; Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Ministry of Works, Transport and Energy.
Mrs. Mini Adzape-Orubibi was appointed as the Executive Chairman of Benue Internal Revenue Service in October 2015 and remained in that position until her removal from the same office in July 2018.
Terzungwe Atser was appointed as her successor in August 2018, a position he held until early July 2019.
The panel recommended that Mrs. Mimi Adzape-Orubibi should refund N2.904 billion to the Benue State Government, being total funds not properly accounted for during her tenure.
According to the panel, “This amount is made up of N179, 748,323.00 overpayment of hazard allowance and N2, 724,565,710.22 being under remittance to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account (CRFA) from BIRS Pool Account.”
“That Mrs. Mimi Adzape-Orubibi should be required to explain the N4,217,404,853.19 (Four Billion, Two Hundred and Seventeen Million, Four Hundred and Four Thousand, Eight Hundred and Fifty Three Naira Nineteen Kobo) withdrawals made from the BIRS Pool Account, during her tenure, without authorization,” the panelists recommended.
It was also recommended that Mr. Terzungwe Atser should refund the sum of N230, 779,688.42 he collected in excess of what he should have collected as the Executive Chairman of BIRS.
“He should refund the under remittance to the CRFA amounting to N918, 146,938.51. He should explain the unauthorized withdrawals of N848, 882,092.22 (Eight Hundred and Forty-Eight Million, Eight Hundred and Eighty-Two Thousand, Ninety-Two Naira, Twenty-Two Kobo) from the BIRS Pool Account. The total amount of N1, 148,926,626.93 should be refunded by Mr. Terzungwe Atser to BNSG,” the panel further recommended.
A consultancy firm, Egghead Tax Consultants was asked to refund N1, 244, 528,735.73 to the Benue State Government and that the engagement with the firm should be terminated and the firm should be blacklisted by the Benue State Government.
On the procurement of motor vehicles and equipment by the Ministry of Works, Transport and Energy (MOWTE), the panel faulted the procedure whereby the Ministry received cash directly from Central Accounts for the cost of the vehicles.
The panelist said, “This arrangement lacks transparency and is very prone to abuse.”
“That total funds misappropriated by officials of MOWTE in respect of motor vehicle procurement amounts to N189, 375,011.40. That by this action of MOWTE officials, the BNSG has been denied Revenue (the contract processing fee) amounting to N31, 562,501.90 and is made to bear the total tax liability of N347, 187,520.90 payable to the FGN (FIRS). That the procurement authority/responsibility for purchasing motor vehicles, earth moving equipment, plants and others is not that of the Ministry of Works but that of the Ministry of Finance,” the panel noted.
In its report on investigation into salary issues in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the panel said that government officials found responsible for pilfering funds using the MANR payroll should be appropriately sanctioned and individuals who benefitted from these fraudulent acts should also be appropriately sanctioned.
In conclusion, the panelists noted that “It is pertinent to point out that, there is need to carry out a full forensic investigation of the BIRS activities including but not limited to the laws, finances, administrative and financial controls and procedures, rules and regulations and any other thing necessary in order to make far reaching recommendations that will make BIRS a better place for all and sundry and also recover traceable and recoverable funds. In the alternative, the government could set up a commission of enquiry to take a good look at BIRS and recommend among other things the way to broaden the state’s tax net and increase collections by at least 1,000% (One thousand percent.”
While thanking the governor for entrusting the huge and onerous task upon its shoulders, members of the panel said that “We hope this report will at least point his administration in a good direction to enable him take some very crucial decisions that will result in additional development and transformation of the state.”
Meanwhile, it was gathered by THE POINT that the recommendations of the panel were not executed by former Governor Ortom before he left office in May 2023.
When contacted by THE POINT on why the report of the panel was jettisoned, the former governor did not pick his telephone calls and did not respond to SMS sent to him.
However, his former Special Adviser on Media and ICT, Terver Akase, told THE POINT that the former governor did not abandon the report.
“The state government did not ignore the report, but it was overtaken by the overall Audit Report of the state government which is a constitutional requirement. The audit report was done and sent to the State House of Assembly and it was subsequently gazetted as required by law,” Akase said.
But a top official in the former administration also confided in THE POINT that the “hands of the former governor were tied on the recommendations of the panel.”
He said the purported audit report was cooked-up by the former governor to exonerate the indicted people.
“This is a lie. Why did he not act on the report that indicted the former chairman of BIRS and others?” he queried.
The official, who pleaded for anonymity because he was not authorized to make comments, said the majority of the culprits “are top-notch individuals and organisations that are beyond reproach.”
Ortom was elected the governor of Benue State as a member of the All Progressives Congress in 2015. He later defected to the People’s Democratic Party and he was re-elected as governor on May 29, 2019. Ortom’s tenure ended on May 29, 2023.
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