As the Buhari Administration prepares for its second tenure inauguration on Wednesday, out going ministers have been directed to hand over to the permanent secretaries in their respective ministries on Tuesday, 28th May, 2019.
At the finance ministry, the minster, Mrs Zainab Ahmed is said to be in a dilemma on whom to hand over to as there are two permanent secretaries namely, Dr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse and Dr Mohammed Kyari Dikwa (Special Duties), who also heads Presidential Continuous Audit (PICA).
Sources at the ministry informed Promptnewsonline that the minister is more favourably disposed to hand over to Dr Isa-Dutse, a political appointee than to Dr Dikwa who was appointed permanent secretary late last year and assigned special duties portfolio.
Attempts to get the Minister’s Special Adviser on Media & Communication, Mr Paul Abechi, to comment on the development failed as he did not pick several calls placed to him by our correspondent.
According to economic analysts, whomever the minister hands over to any of the two technocrats is capable of holding forte until a substantive minister is appointed.
While Isa-Dutse was appointed Perm Sec from his previous position as Executive Director of Cairo-based AFREXIM Bank, Dikwa has acted as Accountant General of the Federation
It is believed that the out going minister, Mrs Ahmed may be reappointed by the president to head the finance ministry going by her impressive performance within the short period she has held sway there.
She was appointment supervising Minister of Finance in September last year from the position of the Minister of State for Budget and National Planning following the resignation of the then Finance Minister, Mrs.Kemi Adeosun.
Since assuming office, Mrs Ahmed has leveraged on the performance of her predecessor especially in the area of revenue generation and blocking wastages.
Speaking at her maiden media briefing in December, 2018, the minister said, “I am prioritising revenue generation as the biggest challenge. As a result, I am steering my team to implement some revenue growth strategies aimed at boosting revenue performance, by deploying new initiatives”.
The minister then hit the ground running by constituting eight Tax Appeal Tribunals across the country to accelerate the resolution of over 209 pending cases relating to tax revenues of about $18.804 billion, N205.654 billion and €0.821 million.
According to her, the tribunals were critical to ensuring that taxpayers got fair hearing and expedite resolution of tax disputes.
Besides, she said, through the tax dispute resolution mechanism, government was able to reduce incidences of tax evasion and improved payers’ confidence whilst ensuring fairness in tax assessment.
“By automating many of our revenue collection processes, such as the deployment of health-pay in the health sector, edu-pay in education and e-collections by our Revenue Authorities, we have seen revenue shore up to record high levels,” she said.
On the expenditure side, the minister noted that despite the revenue shortfall in 2018, the government has been able to pay salaries and service debts 100 percent.
Similarly, apart from releasing seven months overhead funding for the various ministries, departments and agencies, the government was able to record N995billion Capital releases by December 21, 2018.
“We plan to perform better during the rest of the budget year by driving up revenue generation to improve the fiscal space for spending,” she said.
Other achievements included defraying all inherited debts and liabilities since 2015, including the refund of the $5.4 billion Paris Club debt over deductions; payment of the $6.8 billion Joint Venture (JV) Cash Call arrears and N1.9 trillion contractor/Export Expansion Grant as well as N488 billion refund to States for roads.
As part of the present administration’s efforts to ensure all pensioners get their entitlements, the minister said her Ministry, through the Pension Commission, recently paid N54 billion outstanding pension arrears from 2014, 2015 and 2016, and up to March 2017.
Again, based on verification outcome by the Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit (PICA), she said the ministry also paid the entitlements of over 2,000 former workers of the defunct national carrier- Nigeria Airways Limited.
She said efforts were being made towards monthly payments of another 9,215 former workers of NITEL/Mtel after over 12 years via Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD).
Over N571million was paid as gratuity and arrears to 174 Biafra War affected retired Police Officers (WARPRO) in October 2017, she said.
On initiatives targeted at recovering looted public funds, the minister said the Whistleblower unit recovered over N8.5 billion and $465 million from the 1,051 investigations conducted from tip-offs received, while the Efficiency unit reviewed Federal Government’s overhead expenditures.
In addition, the Voluntary Assets & Income Declaration Scheme (VAIDS) recovered over N35 billion, with a significant increase to the country’s tax base, particularly discovered assets that were not reported in the books of accounts of the Federation.
On Friday, the minister inaugurated a 20-member steering committee chaired by herself to facilitate the nation’s revenue generation.
The committee comprising representatives of various government agencies including the Central Bank, Customs and FIRS will use big data analytics to provide intelligence to tax authority on eligible tax payers and their real taxable income and assets.
