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The refusal of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to return
unspent funds to the federation account since 2005, as demanded by law, has
cost the federal government substantial loss in revenue, the Independent
Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) has charged.

Media consultant to the ICPC, Folu Olamiti, said on Monday that
an initial investigation conducted by the ICPC on the agency revealed that it
has not been remitting its annual unspent balances to the federal government
sub-treasury since 2005.

“The commission had discovered that so far it (NCS) owed the
government of Nigeria more than N600 million,” he said.

While confirming that the commission has so far recovered
600million of this money, the ICPC spokesman explained it was “yet to conclude
investigations into the revenue profile of the government agency.”

The ICPC commenced investigations into the activities of the
Nigeria Customs based on a petition by the Central Bank of Nigeria that some
government ministries, departments and agencies (MDA’s) were not returning
their unspent monies to government coffers.

The ICPC was carrying out a ‘system review’ of the agencies
involved when the alleged graft in the customs service was exposed.

Comply or be prosecuted

Mr. Olamiti, while explaining the reason why no one is being
prosecuted for this default, stated that “System review is for you to comply.
If you do not comply by returning all unspent monies by the end of the year,
then we will prosecute.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the NCS was unsuccessful as its
spokesman, Wale Adeniyi, did not answer respond to calls and text messages sent
to his mobile phone.

The investigations and recovery by the ICPC is coming on the
heels of the expected debate by the House of Representatives on the
recommendations of its committee on customs, which investigated the activities
of the agency.

The committee’s report, which was submitted to the house two
weeks ago, indicted several public and private institutions which have refused
to remit money due to the customs and asked the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission to help the agency recover the money.

Some of the public agencies owing the customs, according to the
House committee, are the Nigeria National Petroleum Commission (NNPC), 45
billion naira; the Nigeria Security Printing and Minting Company (NSPMC); and
the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The private firms owing the NCS include oil companies like Shell Petroleum
Development Company, and Elf Petroleum and Total Upstream. Others include
Dangote Industries Limited and Julius Berger.