‘I funded Oyedele-led tax reform panel with N5bn’ — Nami reacts to TheCable story on ‘suspicious’ approvals

Muhammad Nami, former chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), has spoken on TheCable’s report on his belated approval of over N11 billion for payments.

Nami, in a statement issued on Thursday, confirmed that the reported sum was part of N16 billion worth of “outstanding commitments”.

He said the N5 billion paid to the Joint Tax Board was earmarked to fund the activities of the presidential committee on tax and fiscal policy reforms which is led by Taiwo Oyedele, a former fiscal policy partner and Africa tax leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

Although Nami added that “no payment was made by the service after the announcement of my pre-retirement leave”, TheCable had only that he made approvals.

“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”.

TheCable had however reported that Nami travelled out of the country “following the approval” of the payments on September 16 — and not on the said date.

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 , added that despite inheriting N1.4 billion at the FIRS, he left “N129 billion in the purse of the service”. (The Cable)