Reps Condemn ‘Irresponsible, Arrogant’ FIRS’ Boss, Adedeji For Refusal To Appear Before Committee, Warn Of Consequences

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee(PAC) on Thursday condemned what it described as an irresponsible and arrogant act by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS), Zacch Adedeji, over his continuous disregard for the invitation of the committee, saying his actions amounted to contempt of parliament.

Hon. Bamidele Salam, Chairman, PAC read the Act at the committee’s resumed investigative hearing on revenue leakages in Abuja.

The chairman, while reading the riot act against the FIRS boss, said, “this is the fourth time the committee would be inviting the FIRS chairman but failed to show up.”

According to him, in addition to writing to him officially, we have also made sure that such letters were delivered personally to his mailbox and his WhatsApp number.

“And we condemn and describe it as irresponsible and arrogant, and we tell him that there will be consequences if he continues this contempt of his parliament.”

He said that several letters had been written to him without responses, adding that the value-added tax that should be accrued to the Federal Government has not been collected by FIRS.

He said some VAT from the revenue collected by Remitta ought to have gone to the FIRS, but added that they would rather add the VAT together and share it with the CBN, commercial Banks and Remita.

He said “by the time we finished our reconciliation, the money would be in the hundreds of billions,” adding that this was what they were asking the FIRS to come and collect, but the service had refused to show up.