The Senate has promised to publish names of companies found culpable in the alleged N30 trillion revenue scam in the import and export value chain.
Speaking yesterday, Hope Uzodinma, chairman of the Senate joint Committee on Customs, Excise and Tariff and Marine Transport said the committee had completed its first batch of investigation involving over 60 companies and would publish names of firms involved in various infractions leading to loss of government revenue.
He said the committee was releasing the names because it had established culpability against them.
Uzodinma said the publication would contain names and details of how much of recoverable government revenue are with each of the companies.
He stressed that companies found to be involved in infractions relating to money laundering and foreign exchange abuses would be referred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution and recovery of the money.
The senator said those relating to smuggling and import infractions would be referred to the Nigeria Customs Service for recovery and possibly blacklisting.
He said: “We got 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 is to establish culpability against the companies. Now, through various reconciliations, it has been established and we are no longer in doubt.
“We have presented the interim report, which detailed how much we have recovered so far and the Senate approved it at plenary, while an extension was given to us to do the final reconciliation.
“We do not want 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 government and make payments.”
Uzodinma further said some of the companies have started paying, while others have not.
“None of them have fully paid what we have established against them.Since they have started paying, we will now transfer the matter to the Customs, which will now do a recovery schedule with the companies that are willing 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.”
The chairman said the committee would commence the second batch of investigation after some oversight visits to establish culpability, while giving assurance that the committee would not be deterred in its effort to assist government in recovering money meant for the development of the economy.
He stressed that the legislature would continue to use its constitutional powers to assist the executive in blocking leakages and increasing revenue generation, particularly in the non-oil sector.
Uzodinma said it was appalling that in spite of government’s effort to improve revenue generation to meet the country’s development needs, some people were still involved in jeopardising such effort.
The joint committee was mandated by the Senate to investigate alleged N30 trillion revenue leakages in foreign exchange and the entire import and export value chain between 2006 and 2017.
It was mandated to identify leakages and irregularities in the system and come up with recommendations that would block further leakages and strengthen the revenue drive of the Customs.
In an interim report presented to the Senate on October 18, the committee said it had recovered N140 billion.