The Nation Newspaper

Tag: audit

  • FIRS introduces new audit tools to boost revenue

    FIRS introduces new audit tools to boost revenue

    The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) said it has introduced new techniques and audit tools as part of efforts to increase tax revenue collection across its field offices.

    Its Acting Executive Chairman, Alhaji Kabir Mashi, who spoke yesterday at an interactive session with Heads of Audit and their supervisors across the country in Abuja, said framework and template have been designed to monitor audit activities.

    A statement by its Head, Communications and Liaison Department, Wahab Gbadamosi, said Mashi told the auditors that a framework and template is already in place to help monitor audit activities the  drive to increase tax revenue collection.

    “The intention is to extend the new audit techniques currently being deployed through the Capacity Enhancement Programme (CEP) at the Large Tax Offices to all other offices across the country and I hope this will complement the audit model contained in our Integrated Tax Administration System (ITAS).

    “Our plan also includes intensifying our monitoring of audit activities and to this end, we have developed a monitoring framework and template for your tax audit assignments. This would easily check and determine compliance level, check your risk profiling systems, your audit time reporting system and the targets against actual collections at the various levels.”

  • Afghan electoral officials to restart vote audit

    Despite lingering disputes, Afghan electoral officials said yesterday that they will resume an audit of the presidential election this weekend after the presidential candidates sparred over how to disqualify ballots amid allegations of massive fraud.

    The recount of more than 8 million votes is likely to take weeks, stalling an already much-delayed announcement of a new president to replace Hamid Karzai, the only leader the country has known since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban.

    Preliminary results from the June 14 runoff vote showed former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai well ahead of his rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, but both sides alleged fraud.

    In a high-profile bid to pull the country back from the brink of crisis, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated a deal that included an audit of all votes under national and international supervision and ultimately a national unity government.

    But that process soon fell victim to procedural arguments between the two candidates’ teams.Electoral officials stopped the audit last weekend because of the differences as well as a major Muslim holiday.

    The head of the Afghan Independent Election Commission and the chief U.N. envoy to Afghanistan said the sides have agreed on new criteria, allowing the audit to go forward.

  • NCAA, foreign firms to audit domestic airlines

    NCAA, foreign firms to audit domestic airlines

    The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority ( NCAA) has said it will carry out joint audit of domestic carriers to ascertain their technical and financial state of health.

    Its Director General, Captain Fola Akinkuotu disclosed this yesterday at a briefing at the Aviation House, Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos insisted that there was no going back on the audit which will be carried out in collaboration with foreign firms.

    Akinkuotu threatened to shut down airlines that are owing workers’ salaries.

    He said the NCAA will take further steps to raise the bar in safety by ensuring that all domestic operators undergo the International Operations Safety Audit (IOSA), usually conducted by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

    He said the steps were being taken to restore the confidence of the flying public in the aviation sector, adding that it has become critical in the last few weeks on account of the Associated Aviation Embraer 120 crash in Lagos and other incidents.

    He said: ”We will continue to engage domestic operators to do what is right. They have a responsibility to comply with the rules and avoid lapses that will expose the industry to emergencies.

    “The NCAA demands that all operators must sit up. As the regulatory body, the NCAA has a role to ensure that there is continuous monitoring to enhance safety.”

    According to him, as a rule, the NCAA will stop any airline that is owing salaries as part of efforts to ensure safety.

    “The idea is not to deliberately reduce the number of airlines, but to ensure that only strong carriers are in operation,” the regulator said.

    He said contrary to insinuation, NCAA is not broke but affirmed that the authority places premium on training of its personnel.

    He said the incident involving IRS Airlines at the weekend was a safe landing.

    Also speaking, the chairman of IRS Airlines, Alhaji Rabiu Ishaku Rabiu said the NCAA does not allow operators to violate safety regulations.

    He said:” No operator goes against the rule to make profit by carrying out an unsafe operation at the expense of making profit.”

     

  • NEITI: We’ll audit oil, gas, solid mineral firms’ books

    HOW has the Federal Government applied oil revenues in the past five years?

    The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) will tell Nigerians in due course, it was learnt at the weekend.

    Barring any last minute change in plans, NEITI will audit the books of companies in the oil and gas sector as well as solid minerals, beginning from next month.

    The audit, programmed to be completed within nine months, is to determine how revenues accruing from the oil and gas sector were applied between 2007 and 2011.

    For audit are the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), the Petroleum Trust Development Fund (PTDF), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the 13 per cent derivation revenue allocated to oil producing states.

    NEITI will be signing agreements with auditing firms in the first week of next year.

    Besides, the planned audit will determine how other monetary and fiscal transactions in the sectors have been conducted or utilised.

    A member of the NEITI Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG), Mrs. Faith Ossai Nwadishi, who confirmed the planned audit at the weekend, said the agreement with the audit firms is to ensure that the nine-month timeline set by the Federal Government for the completion of the audit is met.

    She assured of NEITI’s support for the proposed audit.

    Her words: “NEITI is ready to facilitate the immediate commencement of the Fiscal Allocations and Statutory Disbursement Audit of the extractive industry from 2007 to 2011 in line with the decision of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) at its November 28, meeting.

    “The planned audit is part of our statutory mandates in the extractive industry. In line with the FEC decision, we are going to meet the auditors that won the contract early in January to sign the agreement. It is an exercise we are committed to and everything is being done to ensure its success.”

    Oil and gas communities have expressed support for the audit and urged NEITI to intervene in the illegal and unconstitutional payment of 13 per cent derivation to any state governments’ account.

    “They (communities) have recently alleged that their state governments have either misappropriated or misapplied N7.282 trillion being the payments for the 13 per cent derivation for 13 years,” she said.

    Industry analysts Dr. Boniface Chizea, who spoke on the planned audit, endorsed the initiative even as he urged the government to ensure that the auditors’ final report, particularly their recommendations, is implemented in a way that would justify the time and resources committed to the efforts.

    Speaking on the proposed audit and its implications for due process, transparency and accountability in the extractive industries, Chizea noted that the audit appeared to be coming late, in view of the unpleasant revelations in the sectors over the past two years.

    Chizea said: “I think the planned audit is coming rather late in view of what has transpired in the industries over the past years but whatever we can do to clearly demonstrate that Nigeria is committed to creating a new operational template that conforms to global best practices in the extractive industries is welcomed.”

    The Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim, advised that the audit should be well funded.