Some workers of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), have called on President Muhammadu Buhari not to reappoint the Executive Chairman of the service, Mr Babatinde Fowler, for another term of office. The workers, under the aegis of Concerned Staff of FIRS, made this known in a letter to the President, a copy of which our correspondent got on Sunday.
In the letter, the workers accused Fowler of being economical with the truth in some of the reports being doled out detailing the activities and achievements of the service. Also, they accused Fowler of setting the service in the reverse gear instead of positioning it for greater height like his predecessors. They alleged that prior to August 2015 when Fowler assumed office, the modernization efforts towards organizational process and structural reforms of FIRS with a view to enhancing effective and efficient tax administration had produced significant verifiable outcomes in many areas. They listed the areas to include developing a tax reform agenda, enactment/amendment of tax laws, National Tax Policy, articulating a clear direction for the Service and the JTB among others. Their grouse against Fowler included recruiting workers in manners shrouded in secrecy and not in conformity with laid down rules. According to them, Fowler’s claim of improved performance was fraught with irregularities. “With fixing of the fundamentals by building a foundational base that would readily enhance tax revenue collections through the implementation of the tax reform, we experienced a steady increase in tax revenues for the government except for the immaterial decrease in tax revenues which of course were attributed to 2007-2009 global credit crunch/financial meltdown, the performance before Mr. Fowler was growing year-on-year. “Contrary to Mr Fowler’s claim that “N5,320 trillion is the highest revenue ever generated by FIRS in history” is misleading and economical with the facts because:
“(1). In 2012 the set revenue target was N3,635.5 trillion while N5,007.7 trillion was generated, with 137.74% of collection. But the set revenue target in 2018 is N6,747.0 trillion and actual revenue generated stood at N5,320.0 trillion with 78.85%.
“(2). The amount of N5,007.7 trillion in Dollars in 2012 was $32,150 billion while the amount of N5,320.0 trillion in 2018 stood at $17,385.62 billion. This means FIRS under his watch did not meet the set target, its performance was also poor in Dollar terms in 2018. Below is the tax revenue collection performance from 2000-2018 for further clarification. “Our collection should continue to grow year-by-year as shown above and not decreasing as highlighted in red which represents FIRS performance under his watch as Executive Chairman. These clarifications are necessary to dispel the huge media propaganda stupendously sponsored with taxpayers’ money in many conventional (electronic and print) platforms all over the country to boost his personal ego”. “The open secret remains that FIRS has under-performed under his leadership and this could be attributed to its executive incompetence and arrogance in handling tax administration matters”. “It must also be emphasized that in 2010 when the general and transparent recruitment exercise was concluded, the ripple effect of the exercise and other initiatives embarked upon produced huge tax revenues as can be seen from the table above for 2010, 2011 and in 2012 when the tax revenues got to all-time high of N5.01trillion at an exchange rate of N155.76. So, it is no longer news that N5trillion revenue target is achievable provided a competent person is appointed as the Executive Chairman of FIRS. “Dear Mr. President, there are so many disturbing atrocities perpetrated by Mr. Fowler in FIRS which your attention must have been drawn to but we wish to also draw it to you again, sir. There are convincing evidences already presented to you for further action and others that may be presented to you for further investigations and for his possible prosecution. We strongly advise that these atrocities be made known to the VICE PRESIDENT because it is his name that is being used a shield against investigation and prosecution for abusing his office. “It must be emphasized that Mr. Fowler’s era in FIRS has unimaginably taken it back to the old dark period of inefficient and ineffective days.
Source: GCFR
