The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee on Thursday said the failure by the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mr Zacch Adedeji, to appear before its members after several invitations, amounted to contempt of parliament.
The Chairman of PAC, Bamidele Salam, stated this at the resumed investigative hearing of the revenue leakages in government agencies in Abuja.
The committee had earlier hinted at the possibility of using its statutory powers to issue a warrant of arrest for any Head of Ministries, Departments and Agencies who failed to honour its invitation while carrying out its oversight function.
Speaking at the event on Thursday, Salam said, “This is the fourth time the committee would be inviting the FIRS chairman but he failed to show up.”
“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 parliament.”
He noted that many letters were transmitted to Adedeji without responses, adding that the value-added tax that should accrue to the Federal Government has not been collected by FIRS.
He said “By the time we finished our reconciliation, the money would be in 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.
President Bola Tinubu had last week appealed to members of the National Assembly to exercise restraint in inviting heads of MDAs.
Tinubu said while oversight is essential for maintaining transparency and accountability in governance, the frequent summons of heads of government agencies could affect service delivery to the people.
”I have been watching various committees summoning ministers and heads of agencies,” the president said.
“I have complained to the speaker to let the poor breathe. Let these people do the job. We are not saying that you are not influential. We are not saying you cannot do your oversight.
“But consider the primary duty of each agency, its personnel, or the responsibilities of the governor of the central bank or the coordinating minister of the economy and minister of finance to you and the entire nation.
”If they are distracted or disturbed, maybe we will shift parliamentary sitting all through the night. We must find a way to accommodate one another.
“This is an appeal to you. See if you can accept representatives in some instances or even documentation,” he added
The president reiterated that he believes in the constitutional powers of the national assembly to uphold good governance through oversight responsibilities on the executive.
