Tax Administrators Must Match The Pace Of Global Technological Advancements — CATA President
Over five hundred employees of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) have rebelled against the management and are refusing to write promotional examinations after the tests got delayed for over four hours.
Truetells Nigeria reports that the promotional exam has been a subject of controversy prior to today due to the cancellation of two previously written exams stemming from allegations of malpractice.
The exams, slated for 8:00 a.m. at the Public Service Institute of Nigeria, did not commence as of 12:45 p.m., when the president of the FIRS Unit of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Lekwot Thomas Friday, arrived the centre and instructed all staff to go home.
Excited screams greeted Mr Friday’s directive from the staff, who had become frustrated after waiting for hours to take the tests that would advance them to the next rung of the civil service ladder.
Two staff members lost consciousness as they waited for the exams to start and were taken to a health facility. One staff member had passed out unexpectedly, and the other experienced an asthma attack.
Some of the staff who spoke with The Gazette during today’s protests expressed their discontentment with the management’s handling of the situation.
When asked to elaborate on the reasons for asking staff members to go home, Mr Thomas declined to comment on the matter. He said it was an internal issue that would be addressed within the FIRS.
“The exams are about to start,” FIRS spokesman Johannes Wojuola told The Gazette. “People have returned to take it.”
The controversial tests come as hundreds of staff members are raising charges of rights violations against the management, led by chairman Muhammad Nami.
The employees said the management failed to approve promotions after they sat two previous exams over the past year, fuelling speculation that available positions might already have been dubiously given to unqualified personnel.
The management, however, said personnel were massively promoted as recently as 2020, noting that the current promotional exercise was planned to ensure that more qualified officials take charge of tax administration in the country.
Officials said the management had assured them that promotions will be approved at the conclusion of today’s examinations, with additional safeguards already put in place to guarantee the integrity of the exercise.
The FIRS is the country’s largest revenue generator, bridging the gap between the formal and informal sectors to raise enough funds to maintain the country’s public service and critical infrastructure obligations.
Fresh crisis looms over stamp duty collection
As the battle on stamp duty collection intensifies, there are indications that the Federal Government and a trade union may be heading fora collision course over whose mandate it is to collect stamp duties and charges.
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) have for a while now been embattled over who is authorised by the law to assess, collect and account for the stamp duty charges.
NIPOST was stripped of the capacity with the recent signing of the Finance Act by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Senior Staff Association of Statutory Corporations and Government-Owned Companies (SSASCGOC), an affiliate of TUC, has opposed the development.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja at the weekend, the National Treasurer of TUC, who is the immediate past President-General of SSASCGOC, Mohammad Yunusa, said that the Federal Government has already been dragged to court over the matter.
He said, ‘’The problem we have is the one that is connected to the Federal Government directly which is about the Finance Act. The Finance Act has given the primary functions of NIPOST which is one of our branches to FIRS and we have challenged the government on this matter even to the court that the Finance Act must be repealed.
‘’You can’t take the statutory function of NIPOST and give it to other agency in the disguise of the Finance Act, we can’t accept it. Is there any organisation by law that is allowed to produce and sell stamps in Nigeria apart from NIPOST? That’s what they are trying to do but it is not acceptable to us.’’ In addition, Yunusa disclosed that his union would do everything possible in its rights to ensure the move by the government to privatise the Nigerian Communications Satellites are not achieved.