A group of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) staff have launched a campaign aimed at preventing the re-appointment of Mr. Tunde Fowler as Chairman of the agency.
The campaign, which broke over the weekend has, at its main tactic, the spread of falsehood about Fowler’s headship of the FIRS since his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari in August 2015.
The first phase of the campaign featured the publication of a petition on an online news medium known for one-sided reports and character assassination.
Sources within the FIRS disclosed that those behind the campaign are top officials and other staff of the revenue collecting agency who, under the previous regime, made enormous amounts of money from crooked deals and are angry that Fowler’s four-year headship of the Service has curtailed their activities.
A source within the agency disclosed that before Fowler was appointed, the FIRS paid huge sums directly into the accounts of some directors and other senior members of staff of the agency for the maintenance of offices nationwide and other office functions many of which were never done.
“Before Fowler, money for diesel and other office maintenance jobs were paid into the accounts of the bosses, who treated the money as part of their emoluments. Most times these things were never purchased.
“It was not uncommon to visit an FIRS office and find it in darkness. This is what some of the unhappy staff want to return to,” said the source.
Through these schemes, disclosed the source, many became billionaires. “They made plenty of money and did not care about revenue collection.
However, when the current Chairman was appointed, he introduced a stringent tenders system that bars companies owned by or with links to FIRS staff from bidding,” she said.
This, she explained, did not go down well with those exploiting the system and are desperate to have the former system returned.
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Another source within the agency told this medium that the introduction of electronic payment solutions, through which leakages have been blocked to improve revenues, is equally a source of irritation to many top and mid-level staff, who were cutting deals with tax defaulters and making huge amounts of money.
The source explained that the use of technology has made it possible for taxpayer to pay directly, thereby cutting out deals for under-payment facilitated by FIRS staff, who take generous amount of bribes to make them happen.
“The plain fact is that many people were involved and they made good money, bought choice homes and lived large by gaming the system. That has been heavily curtailed. You don’t expect them to be happy with the Chairman, who introduced these measures and certainly do not want a continuation of such. They will fight tooth and nail to have those illicit privileges brought back,” he said.
Many staff, added the source, are also angry that the Chairman is a person who insists of processes being followed. This, he said, is particularly offensive to staff, who were accustomed to the disorderly ways that allowed them to exploit processes for personal benefits. For example, he said, the placement of lien on the bank accounts of tax-defaulting companies aangered many officials, who had protected those defaulting companies in the past.
Those in this category angered, he added, are unimpressed that the year-on-year improvement in revenue collection, which took in the record N5.32trillion collected last year, are desperate to present Fowler as bad for the agency.
“How can they say he exaggerates revenue figures when revenues go straight into Federal Government account, not into FIRS account? The Federal Government sees what goes in and does not require the FIRS to inform it. But that is what desperation does,” he said.
The source equally revealed that many of the staff who were sabotaging the system have had to be moved from what they regard and lucrative positions to allow for the system to work. And because as they are civil servants and cannot be sacked, they continue to foment trouble within the system.
“They don’t want the Chairman to return so they can return to their old game and the people in this category are few, but desperate,” our source added.
