Senate suspects FIRS N16bn budget for ‘employees in waiting’

The Senate Committee on Finance has queried the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS over a budget appropriation of over N16 billion for salaries for 1250 staff yet to be recruited in 2016 by the FIRS.

The committee also kicked against the appropriation of N1.6 billion by as welfare package for intending retirees in 2016, which the service said is for its annual event of recognising its retired staff explaining that the event could not be held for two years due to lack of fund.

There was also a N700 million budget for medical bills of staff which the committee also queried, prompting the chairman of the committee, John Enoh to ask the FIRS to present the total breakdown of the proposed expenditure details of what it spent last on its retired staff.

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This was the outcome a budget defence session with the FIRS, which held on Friday.

Enoh said, “We will need a presentation that explains some particular cases of variation”.

This followed observations by members of the committee that the budget for welfare of retired staff was unreasonable since the agency never spent such huge amount for that purpose.

The committee also noted, that the FIRS proposed the sum of N350 million in the 2015 budget and received approval of N148 million but only spent N116 million out of the amount. The committee then wondered why it made a budget of N700 million in 2016 budget.

The committee chairman added that since FIRS claimed that it had not held the event for two years, it should provide the details of its last expenditure.

 

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