Why Babatunde Fowler lost a second term at FIRS

 

• Accused of nepotism, lying, corruption

 

BY OUR EDITOR

Mr Babatunde Fowler, immediate past Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), had been involved in a running battle with the Joint Union Council of the FIRS over his running of the tax agency and this may have accounted for why he lost a second term in office.

President Muhammadu Buhari last Monday brushed aside Fowler and appointed a tax consultant, Muhammad Nami, as the new Executive Chairman of FIRS. Nami’s name alongside a new board has been submitted to the Senate by the Presidency for confirmation.

Emerging facts have revealed that Fowler had been accused in a petition by the Joint Union Council of the FIRS of various sins, including nepotism, corruption, high-handedness, lying about actual amount generated, name-dropping, extortion and generally operating the Federal Government’s major revenue machine as a sole enterprise, especially since he did not have a constituted supervisory board.

The Joint Union Council in an open letter to the President specifically asked that Fowler should not be given a second term in office.

“Dear Mr. President, there are so many disturbing atrocities perpetrated by Mr. Fowler in FIRS which your attention must have been drawn to but we wish to also draw it to you again, sir. There are convincing evidences already presented to you for further action and others that may be presented to you for further investigations and for his possible prosecution. We strongly advise that these atrocities be made known to the VICE PRESIDENT because it is his name that is being used (as) a shield against investigation and prosecution for abusing his office,” it wrote.

It continued: “It must be emphasized that Mr. Fowler’s era in FIRS has unimaginably taken it back to the old dark period of inefficient and ineffective days. Some of which include;

“Corporate and institutional lies (untrue stories) about FIRS performance being perpetrated by Mr. Fowler. Examples include; N1.5 trillion announced to have been collected as tax revenue in the 1st Quarter, 2019. Whereas the sum of N1.07 trillion was the actual collection for the same period. Another example was that the tax audit cycle was reported to have been reduced from 90 days to 63 days. This is not true as there are many tax audit cases above 48 months that are yet to be concluded in various tax audit review offices nationwide. Another lie was the issue of 5000 new taxpayers most of which are enterprises and road side merchants that have little or no contributions to FIRS tax revenue collections. These and many other lies have to be said by the FIRS Chairman with a view to keeping himself or his proxy in office for another term of four (4) years.

READ: Buhari shuns Fowler, appoints new FIRS chairman

“Extravagant weekly spending on concerts and parties in Lagos, Port Harcourt and other major cities within and outside Nigeria.

“Frivolous donations to organizations while staff entitlements for official engagements would take a long time to settle. This is evident in the investigation currently on-going by EFCC where millions of naira of Duty Tour Allowance (DTA) were found in the accounts of the staff working directly with Mr. Fowler. FIRS staff are suspecting that the investigation will be compromised because of Fowler’s relationship with the VICE PRESIDENT and the EFCC Chairman.

“Lack of organizational structure for effective performance. His commitment at ensuring that FIRS does not have a constitutionally recognized board since his appointment is a disservice to the organization and the country. This was deliberately allowed to happen. Recall that the last time FIRS had a Board was in April 2012. The absence of FIRS board has made Mr. Fowler, a 3-in-1 authorities i.e. the Executive Chairman, the Management and the FIRS Board. This has further fueled the executive arrogance being displayed by the Executive Chairman of FIRS for lack of checks and balances.

“Restructuring of FIRS organogram to suit his personal aggrandizement. Some audit functions in the area of Oil and Gas, financial institutions, multinationals, telecommunications, constructions, aviation and special audit & investigative cases have been personalized by assigning them to inexperienced acquaintances he brought into the Service as staff and consultants without recourse to the due process.

“Collapse of a functional regional structure into inactive state coordination while most of the state coordinators are his personal and political friends, he brought inexperienced people to occupy high and strategic positions in FIRS.

“Outsourcing of core responsibilities of some departments such as Human Capital Management, ICT, Audit functions for personal gains and not for the interest of the Services.

“Movement of ICT equipment to a private company premises, (Main-one Nigeria) in Lagos through a contract worth over N1.7 billion for the co-location. Note that Executive Chairman has no power to award contract of such magnitude.

“Collapse of structured weekly meetings, OMM & EMM by making himself the sole management/decision maker for FIRS. He calls for meetings at his convenience even without prior notice to abuse, blame, mock and make all sorts of unprofessional and uncomplimentary remarks instead of using the platform to collectively address fundamental issues affecting the progress of the Service.

“Suspension of tax audit and case investigation functions in various field offices since January, 2016 and the engagement of friends as FIRS consultants to carry out core tax functions of audit, investigations, taxpayers’ registrations and other ancillaries of the Service.

“Indiscriminate Transfer of senior officers to non-existent offices and/or non-functional training schools nationwide.

“Continuous employment of new people unilaterally without recourse to established rules, processes and procedures for recruitment exercise. There are no Staffing Needs Assessment carried out before recruiting the new staff. In 2019 alone, over 700 staff have been brought in illegally. Sometimes appointment letters are brought to Mr. Fowler to sign in the VIP waiting lounge at the airport.

“Duplication and multiplicity of duties and responsibilities have become the order of the day in the Service.

“His verbal pronouncement at any meeting or forum has now become a policy statement. This is indeed an unfortunate nightmare currently existing in FIRS.

“Corruption has also become a phenomenon, a culture and a norm using all kinds of fronts in receiving gratifications from tax refund cases, contract awards, lien-on-accounts placement and even in employment.”

The Joint Union Council alleged that the effect of Fowler’s leadership style had undoubtedly affected the image of the Service such that FIRS had become the most litigious institution amongst MDAs in Nigeria. It also accused the former executive chairman of lacking the requisite leadership skills and sufficient knowledge of taxation to drive FIRS to the next level.

“In view of this and for the immediate action for the integrity of the Service to be preserved, we humbly and respectfully pray that:

“Mr. Babatunde Williams Fowler’s appointment as the ECFIRS must not be renewed and a new substantive chairman who is not an affiliate or friend of politicians, but a technocrat with excellent credentials of track records from within the FIRS be appointed forthwith to reset and re-build the Service.

“The Board of FIRS should be constituted without further delay. The composition of FIRS Board with quality minds and other institutional members is very important to drive the strategic implementation and values of the Nigerian tax system.

“It is strongly recommended that the activities of Mr. Fowler from the day he was appointed as the ECFIRS up to his last day in office should be investigated and be brought to book for all infractions he had committed while holding sway as the Executive Chairman of FIRS,” the union submitted.