By Oge Nosike
When the new Chairman of the Imo Internal Revenue Service (IIRS), Justice Remigius Okoye said he was committed to plugging all avenues of revenue leakage in the state, not many were certain he would follow through.
But recent events at the IIRS, all happening so fast, suggest that Okoye’s resolve to follow through his action plan, may be iron-clad afterall.
With the prevailing realities on ground, no state in Nigeria can afford to handle issues of Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) with kid’s gloves, at least not for now.
Nations of the world are making critical adjustments to cushion the debilitating impact of the global economic downturn occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And in much the same way, proactive governments at local and international levels are adopting and embarking on policy actions that cut down on wastages, leakages and huge overhead costs.
As such, no government at this point in world history can afford to gloss over practises that illegally drain the resources of the state, no matter how entrenched, how old or how systemic the practices have become.
It therefore needs no saying that over the years, the IIRS has become due, if not overdue, for far-reaching reforms and sweeping changes in its operational modalities. The new Chairman of the Service was quick to discern the pervasive rots in the IIRS and the need for radical and urgent intervention.
In just one week of his appointment, as the Chief revenue driver of the state, Okoye has already read the riot act to functionaries of the IIRS. While some have been served queries for their questionable antecedents, one or two others have been given the gates.
He had further reviewed all contractual obligations of the IIRS and consequently terminated all contracts with revenue consultants so that the IIRS can re-start on a clean slate with a robust revenue generation framework devoid of the usual in-bred impediments.
As sure-footed as the IIRS Chairman may seem, it is the expectation of Imo people that the sanitisation of the IIRS should be holistic and nothing less.
The instant case of Mr. Ayozie Joseph who was queried and subsequently removed from his post was welcomed by many as a bust of fresh air to the Service.
Ayozie who identifies as the head, Enforcement Unit of the Service falls in the category of ‘strange workmen’ who are not considered as regular employees of the IIRS, yet they wield enormous influence, way and above duly employed and trained staff of the IIRS.
About a fortnight ago, Ayozie in a horrendous racket that threw mud at the decency and integrity of the state, impounded and allegedly extorted money from food trucks conveying food materials, palliatives and PPE to neighbouring states.
That brief moment of recklessness resulted in regrettable media bashing to the state government.
When the immediate past Chairman, Prince Emma Onunaku, a core civil servant, was contacted on phone over the incident, without rhetoric, he said he was not aware of such operation and did not mandate any staff to impound and exploit any food truck.
It is therefore commendable that the new Chairman has shown the will to work; the courage to take tough decisions and make hard choices.
Nevertheless, Ayozie is just one individual in just one of the many units in the IIRS.
What about the Transport unit? What about the Security unit? What about TAMA that is encumbered by malpractices? What about the Administrative and Personnel units where internal posting and redeployment of staff is a thriving racket? Needless to mention the Stamp Duty and Capital Gain Tax units where corruption walks on all fours.
To say the least, the IIRS is presently crawling with criminal syndicates and cabals who have maintained a stranglehold on the revenues and resources of the IIRS.
From one administration to the other, these men wield uncanny influences over the leadership and power structures of the IIRS; they deploy internal and external influences, sometimes diabolical and clandestine means to exert control over the headship of the Service or at least the decision making process of the IIRS.
As such, they perpetuate themselves and their interests in the IIRS.
The first thing that strikes a probing visitor to the IIRS is the strict code of silence pervading the Service. Everyone is afraid to talk about the issues crippling the Service and the question is why?
The unusual mute mode adopted by operators in the IIRS often smacks of an unspoken conspiracy by either a powerful few or a complicit majority – whatever be the case, the questionable silence remains a moral indictment.
Any probing mind who visits the IIRS would come away with such questions as why functionaries who retired 3-5 years ago still call the shots in some units of the Service? He would want to know why persons who are not bona-fide staff of the Service are occupying a number of key positions in the IIRS.
He would query why some staff have to pay as much as N50,000 to a certain personnel syndicate just to be posted to a perceived ‘juicy’ unit or department in the IIRS.
Just like Ayozie, the Security unit and the Transportation unit are controlled by one Levi Ike who is also not considered a regular staff of the IIRS.
Like Ayozie who came into the Service with Charles Onwunali, the former Chairman of the Service, Levi Ike was brought into the IIRS by Henrietta Jacobs, the immediate predecessor to Onwunali.
These unengaged associates of former Chairmen of the IIRS should ordinarily be expected to leave at the expiration of the tenure of their principals.
But that is not the case in IIRS; They rather establish themselves, expand their reach, draw substantial resources from IIRS and further complicate the revenue situation of the state.
In the contract award front, the sad reality is that most of the recycled revenue contractors are fronts for senior officials of the IIRS, some of these senior officials are even among those officials who draft and sign the contract award letters.
Vibrant personnel of the IIRS regularly trained, re-trained and funded by the Service are literally shoved aside while some persons who had retired from the Service are allowed to have the run of critical departments in the IIRS by proxy.
Persons who should be in retirement, create offices and designations for themselves, dominate some areas of operation so brazenly that one wonders who is incahrge at the IIRS.
It is however, not known when the last staff audit was conducted at the IIRS, if there has ever been any. A staff audit and biometric capture of all bona-fide staff of the IIRS have become expediently imperative to ensure that strange elements with ulterior motives do not compromise and jeopardize the revenue generation capacity of the IIRS.
Consequently, the mixed multitude of unregulated ‘workers’ daily milling around the IIRS, makes a fertile ground for the conception and nurturing of all corrupt practises and criminal intents.
It would therefore be good counsel to investigate the personnel syndicate specializing in effecting internal postings at a price.
Directors in the Administrative Department, some of who had been in the unit since the tenure of Dr. Ikedi Ohakim as governor of the state, and wield control on the personnel unit, should begin to take responsibility of the rots in the unit.
The tender and procurement processes of the Service should be sanitized with the activities of key officials in the process, reviewed.
Not too long ago, the signature of the former Chairman was forged and used to award contracts leading to multiple contract awards to the detriment of the IIRS. .
There is no gain-saying the fact that there is a functional contract syndicate in the IIRS that should, as a matter of urgency, be dislodged.
Several revenue companies are merely fronts of the contract syndicate operating in the IIRS.
They are often guaranteed to win the revenue contracts with whatever company name they choose to bear.
In most cases, before these fronts remit what is due to the state, they would have remitted an agreed percentage to the contract syndicate.
As a result, the state bears the burden of under remittance of revenues by revenue companies which except for undue influence, may ordinarily not have qualified through a standard selection process
Beyond the issue of forged signatures, there is also a clique of IIRS operatives who specialize in issuing forged or fake ‘Demand Notices’. And when the target company, hotel or property owner opts to negotiate with the operatives, they pay a negotiated fee for the fake notices to be withdrawn. The fee sum goes straight into the pockets of the rogue operatives.
Much the same way, there are top officials of the IIRS who hire and deploy touts on revenue drive and use their official status to give legitimacy to the criminality.
Most times, the revenue generated from such operations do not eventually find their way to state coffers but instead, to private pockets.
So the overhauling of the IIRS should be comprehensive, as multiple criminal syndicates are directly and indirectly milking the IIRS.
With nearly every former IIRS chairman leaving behind their lackeys in the Service, quacks now have the run of the IIRS.
This may also be the reason it has been rather difficult to eradicate the activities of touts in the IIRS.
The Commissioner for Transport, Barr. Rex Anunobi corroborated these facts recently when his enforcement team busted a three-man syndicate of fake emblem contractors.
According to a press statement by his media aide, Mr. Ebere Uzoukwa, the criminal syndicate who were trailed and arrested at Mbaise Park along Egbu Road had some top officials of the IIRS as active collaborators.
Ultimately, there are many criminal groups running their individual schemes within the IIRS system in crass antagonism of the revenue potentials of the Service.
They have consequently constituted themselves into an organized, systemic drain pipes for revenue leakage.
It therefore becomes pertinent that the reforms already initiated by the new Chairman of the IIRS should be a far-reaching overhauling of the entire revenue framework of the Service.
With the fast dwindling allocation from the federation account to the state, it will amount to a huge disservice, if the reform is not pursued with vigour, executed strategically and brought to a logical end with the expected turnaround in the interest of the state.
The revenue of Imo state must work for Imo state. This conversation will continue.
