Nigeria’s Senate on Thursday stepped down report of its Committee on Finance on the 2016 budget of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS).
The proposal was rejected after careful consideration of recommendations of the committee on Finance headed by Senator John Enoh representing Cross River Central and was giving a week to properly tidy up a number of issues raised.
Senate had referred the request of President Muhammadu Buhari on the budget of the FIRS to its committee on finance in July.
More than three months afterwards, Thursday, the report of the committee was presented by Mr. Enoh, accused of having his child as one of the new staff illegally recruited by FIRS.
But the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and few other senators raised concerns about the report, saying they discovered loopholes and “fake” items.
Mohammed Hassan (PDP-Yobe) emphasised the need for the Senate to get full details of items in the budget.
“The descriptions of some of the items on the budget are fake,” said Mr. Hassan dismissively.
Bassey Akpan (PDP-Akwa Ibom) also questioned the “drastic” increment in the proposed expenditure of the FIRS on personnel.
During a budget defence session in April, Mr. Enoh’s committee had queried the FIRS Chairman, Babatunde Fowler, for proposing N16 billion for salaries of 1,250 staff it planned to recruit then; N1.6 billion for retired staff; and N700 million for staff medicals.
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