The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has petitioned the minister of Finance, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, over the arrest of the executive secretary, Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Engr. Adamu Ismaila and some directors of the agency, by the Federal Inland Revenue Service, over an allegation of unremitted taxes, to the tune of over N28 billion.
Ismaila and some directors in the FCT administration were reportedly arrested in their offices on Wednesday.
In a letter signed by the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, to the Finance minister, dated December 22, 2011, which our reporter stumbled on yesterday, the minister denied that the FCTA administration was owing the said amount, but insisted that in 2011 alone, it had remitted the sum of over N15,517,770,498.47 to the FIRS, being withholding and value added taxes on contract payments.
The letter reads in part: “A team of FIRS auditors who audited records of the FCTA remittances of WHT and VAT to FIRS came up with an outstanding figure of the sum of N345,655,364.00 as against the sum of N28,276,872,572.87, earlier claimed by the FIRS, for which even this is contested by the FCTA.
“The Federal Capital Territory Administration was in the process of reconciliation with the FIRS auditors, the contestable sum of N345,655,364.00, when the enforcement team of the FIRS arrested the executive secretary of FCDA and other officials of the FCTA based on the unconfirmed claim of the non-remittance of an incredible figure of N28,276,872,572.87.”
The minister, in the letter, lamented that it was unfortunate that the FIRS did not contact the FCTA Treasury Department to crosscheck its findings with actual payments made on withholding tax and VAT on contracts.
“At a meeting after the arrest of the FCTA officials, it was discovered that the FIRS reached its conclusion of the alleged figure of the sum of N28,276,872,572.87 from valuation certificates raised by the FCDA on capital projects rather than from the actual payments made by the Treasury Department.
“The FIRS is perhaps oblivious of the FCTA policy on payments of capital projects which is centrally done by the Treasury Department and pays all taxes along with such payments,” the letter further stated.
Furthermore, two documented evidences were attached to the letter, indicating that the FIRS did not make remittances of the FCTA share of PAYE taxes amounting to N11,163,024,316.57, covering the period June to date, until last week.
The FCTA said it viewed the action as a calculated attempt to damage its reputation but that it had restrained itself from reacting publicly, to avoid two government agencies attracting unnecessary attention in the public arena, but warned that such embarrassment would not be taken kindly in the future.
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