Corruption: CCB, FIRS Partner on Information Gathering, Sharing

The Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) says it will partner with the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on information gathering and sharing to achieve its mandate of actualising a corruption- free society.

Prof. Mohammed Isah, Chairman of the Bureau, said this when he led board members of the organisation on a courtesy visit to the headquarters of the FIRS on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said the collaboration with the organisation  would simplify  getting information on public officers’ asset declaration when in contention.

“We know that your organisation is not only a tax collector but you enforce laws relating to tax collection.

“So in a way, we can say you are a law enforcement agency because you go further to collaborate with other law enforcement agencies to ensure that laws are obeyed.

“We all know that it is your duty to monitor the activities of all Nigerians that are in the formal and informal sector, as it relates to their tax payment, even for those in offshore.

“And since the Voluntary Offshore Assets Regularisation Scheme came into place since 2018, we want to make sure that we harness all the necessary potentials we have for generating our revenue effectively.

“We are here to therefore, seek for your collaboration, cooperation in information sharing and support where necessary for us to enhance the execution of our mandate,” he said.

Responding, Mr Muhammad Nami, Executive Chairman, FIRS, expressed readiness of the service to partner with the bureau in its fight against corruption.

“This collaboration and visit is timely with the reforms we have embarked on since we were appointed in December last year.

“So we also realise that we need to do more to boost our revenue and that is why we need to collaborate with critical stakeholders like your organisation.

“So that we can raise the current GDP from the six per cent that we currently are, to about 15 per cent that we want to have by 2021,” he said. (NAN)