I funded Oyedele-led tax reform panel with N5bn – Nami, former FIRS boss

The immediate past chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami on Thursday revealed that he released N5 billion to the Joint Tax Board recently constituted by President Bola Tinubu to reform the country’s tax system.

According to Nami, the money was released to the Taiwo Oyedele led committee to fund their activities.

Nami was responding so media report on his belated approval of over N11 billion for payments on the eve of his departure from office.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the former FIRS boss confirmed that the reported sum was part of N16 billion worth of “outstanding commitments”.

Nami added that “no payment was made by the service after the announcement of my pre-retirement leave.”

“Fundamentally: It is important to note that no payment was made by the Service after the announcement of my pre-retirement leave as claimed by this story. An approval for payment in the Service is one step of a journey to payment. It is the custom that when a new Executive Chairman resumes office, he would review, validate and make final authorisation before any payments can be made,” the statement reads in part.

“It is important to note for the record that all decisions reached and extant liabilities/ commitments of the Service during my stay in office are contained in the handover notes I made available to my successor, Mr. Zacch Adedeji. He is fully briefed on everything. For clarity the items listed in the Cable Newspaper Report were part of the N16 billion outstanding commitments contained in our handover note.

“The N5 billion paid to Joint Tax Board was paid to fund the activities of Presidential Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reforms two months before I left office. It was paid after we received a letter to that effect from the office of Mr. President signed by Zacch Adedeji himself.”

Nami also spoke on his foreign trip after his sack, saying the report “attempts to portray a picture that I hurriedly left the country on September 16th”.

Defending his time in office, Nami said “every decision” he made was “within the ambit of the law and within the lawful powers I exercised then as executive chairman”.

Nami, who was sacked on September 14 and replaced with Zacchaeus Adedeji, added that despite inheriting N1.4 billion at the FIRS, he left “N129 billion in the purse of the service”