Federal Inland Revenue Service board of directors
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is an institution responsible for handling everything that involves collection and payment of tax at the federal level. Although the FIRS is a federal government institution, it is hard to find any information on members of the board of directors of FIRS.
Federal Inland Revenue Service
From the very beginning of its creation, this institution was responsible for tax collection. In 1943, the Nigerian Revenue Department was part of the West Africa Revenue Service.
Today FIRS carries out all tax related functions and other revenue generating services. The FIRS: defines the whole procedure connected with tax management. It defines tax payment guidelines, tax benefits, taxpayers and tax types. Regarding statistic, the Federal Inland Revenue Service is also responsible for Tax Revenue Statistics, Tax Treaties, and Tax Legislation.
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The FIRS is also responsible for e-Registration, e-TCC, e-Receipts, e-Stamp Duty, e-Payment, e-Filling.
Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service board
One of the scandals that rocked the Federal Inland Revenue Service started almost two years ago, when it was reported by Sahara Reporters that Mr. Babatunde Fowler, chairman of FIRS is not a holder of a doctorate degree from the Irish International University. According to the BBC, this university offered useless honorary degrees for money.
The BBC in its reports from 2008, wrote that the Irish International University was no more than just a fraudulent institution. Naija also provided news about this university in 2016. Another interesting fact about the Federal Inland Revenue Service Chairman is his Bachelor Degree from the University of Wisconsin and Masters degree from California State University. Naija reported that both these universities had numerous campuses across the USA.
Babatunde Fowler was appointed to be a chairman of Federal Inland Revenue Service Board in 2015. Before that, he was a Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State Internal Revenue Service. Mr. Fowler has remained one of the loudest voices against oil dependence in Nigeria. He consistently warns the Federal Government that oil over-dependence might lead to drastic drop in revenue.
Media and Federal Inland Revenue Service
About one year ago, FIRS scandals began to rock the Nigerian media. One of the FIRS directors was caught in tax fraud, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Mr, Abumere Joseph Osagie deputy director of regional tax office on January 29.
On January 26, 2016, the Executive Chairman of FIRS, redeployed about 26 directors from their posts in the head office. According to the Guardian, these specialists were redeployed to various locations across the country, in accordance with new FIRS policy called State Coordinators.
These Coordinators have to be located in the various states to coordinate and supervise the actions of local tax officers. It seems the media wasn't done with FIRS scandals. According to the Sahara Group reports, Mr. Tunde Fowler managed to hire more than 300 new employees secretly. Therefore, the head of FIRS violated the laws of public advertisement in Nigeria.
Board Directors of FIRS
It's almost impossible to get any kind of information about the board directors. You can only find profiles of some deputies at the commission on the LinkedIn. Checkout the profiles of some of the deputies below:
- NNeka Ifekwuna – Deputy Director Communications and Servicom.
- Adeniyi Orebajo – Deputy Director of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
- Richard Kimeku - Deputy Director of the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
- Osagie Aj – Tax controller at the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
- Dr. Chukwudi Ezeudeka – Tax director at the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
From the list above, it seems that the Federal Inland Revenue Service does not wish make information about its directors easily accessible to the public. Only the deputies are openly presented to the public. Even the official website of the institution does not provide information about members of the board of directors.
Nevertheless, how should people trust the Federal Inland Revenue Service if it can't free itself from the constant scandals? This question is still open for discussions!
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Source: Legit.ng
