NgeneUkwenu:
Saratu Umar was fired as the executive secretary of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC) on the suspicion that she leaked information on the granting of questionable tax waivers estimated to be worth $20 billion, TheCable can report.

Umar, who was appointed only last year, was sacked on Monday by President Goodluck Jonathan exactly eight days after a nine-month-old letter on the controversial waivers was leaked to the media — and six days after the NIPC staff union petitioned the president to ask for her removal.

No reason was given for her sack.

Nigeria is believed to have lost at least $20 billion to tax holidays granted to undeserving companies between 2010 and 2014, mostly on the recommendation of NIPC.

But this was before Umar became its chief executive and embarked on a tax holiday reform for which she was recently commended by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC).

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the finance minister, had written to Umar in August 2014 to complain about the indiscriminate granting of waivers.

The letter, which was published in THISDAY on May 10, 2015, alleged that the federal government lost huge revenue to questionable tax holidays granted companies by NIPC.

TheCable learnt that Umar was accused of leaking Okonjo-Iweala’s letter to the media in order to embarrass Jonathan and curry the favour of President-elect Muhammadu Buhari.

The prolonged media war against Umar by NIPC senior staff was believed to have been instigated “from outside” in order to prepare grounds for the removal of the woman

The biggest beneficiaries of the waivers are thought to be oil companies linked to top government officials.

‘Irresponsibility and immaturity’

After the leak of Okonjo-Iweala’s letter, NIPC staff petitioned Jonathan, asking for Umar’s removal.

“It appears the current Executive Secretary has taken the staff agitation for her removal to a desperate point of dragging the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to the mud by whipping up sentiments in the media at this critical time when the Nation is undergoing transition. The leakage of the letter by the Minister of Finance sent directly to the Executive Secretary of NIPC on August 12, 2014 and which has been in her custody, smacks of an act of irresponsibility and immaturity,”  Ahmad Ghondi, chairman of NIPC union, wrote in the petition.

Jonathan promptly fired Umar in a move reminiscent of the removal of Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as central bank governor in February 2014 after his letter on “missing” oil money leaked.

Umar had been having a running battle with the senior staff of NIPC who went public with their opposition to her.

At a stage, they declared that 98% of the staff were against her “dictatorial” style of leadership and “incompetence”.

NIPC is saddled with promoting investment opportunities in Nigeria, and part of the incentives for investors is tax holiday for which the commission has to issue “pioneer status” certificates.

However, the waivers are to be applied within certain criteria, such as a company investing in a virgin area that needs incentives.

Although Okonjo-Iweala did not give the actual figures of revenue lost through the tax holidays, she said while oil companies were supposed to be taxed 65 per cent under the Petroleum Profit Tax Act, certain officials of NIPC listed such companies under the Industrial Development (Tax Relief) Act, thereby making them qualify for pioneer status.

She said the tax holidays were granted to companies “whose products do not meet the requirements of the list of industries or products specified in the schedule to the Act”.

Unfair advantage

The officials of NIPC further breached the rule by backdating the pioneer certificates, forcing the federal government to refund taxes that had already been paid into its coffers by these companies, she said.


A beneficiary of this, according to Okonjo-Iweala, is Seplat, an operator of one of the fields belonging to NNPC.

“While SDPC (Shell) disposed of its interest to Seplat, NNPC disposed of its interest to NPDC (Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, being the exploration arm of NNPC). Seplat, thereafter, was granted a tax holiday whereas NPDC continued to pay taxes from the operation of the same field. This confers an unfair advantage on Seplat,” she wrote.

As many as 15 oil companies are believed to have benefit from the tax holidays despite not being eligible but for the connivance of NIPC officials.

The union staged a protest that led to the paralysis of activities at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja on April 22.

During the protest, its members carried placards with inscriptions such as: ‘NIPC without management/Council’, ‘Saratu Umar must go today’, ‘Self-styled one-man management’, ‘No imprest to zonal office for eight months’.

But Umar denied the allegations, saying some directors of the agency who were indicted for misappropriating NIPC’s funds were behind the protest.

Chairman of RMFAC, Elias Mbam, recently commended Umar for “taking bold steps” that had sanitised the granting of the pioneer status incentives which had hitherto witnessed challenges in its administration that led to huge revenue loss to the federation.

Mbam said import duty waivers, concessions and exemptions “have direct bearing on the quantum of revenue accruals into the Federation Account which gets depleted and consequently affects the share of every tier of government”.

http://www.thecable.ng/exclusive-nipc-boss-fired-embarrassing-jonathan-20bn-tax-waivers

The same Cable that reported a false statement from wole Soyinka! If you believe this then you are a slowpoke! In "soyinka's voice"

NgeneUkwenu:
This Never-do-well of a Woman and Jonathan were really on a mission to bankrupt Nigeria!

Can Someone now explain to me how Jonathan, Iweala, Stealer Odua and Dizieani Won't end up as prison mates?

Meanwhile, Jonathan has exactly 9 days left in office. From the perspective of activities at our vault, it’s like 12 days of Christmas out there!

na your mama be never do well! You idiots are classic clowns! Do you mofos have any empirical evidence aside heresay against these amazons?

anonimi:
OBJ and RCCG of Adeboye were worse culprits on this =>

noo those black tiger faced mofos will never see this. The likes of falana and haggard Akande! Will be speaking like a sagged talking drum from tv to radio to newspaper.

Goddex:
[size=13pt]APC propagandists seem to love '$20 billion' so much

1) Sanusu claimed $20 billion from NNPC was missing

2) Amaechi and progrethieves claimed $20 billion was missing from ECA

3) Now another #20 billion about NIPC[/size]

don't mind them, they have borrowed even their senses too. You can imagine that stupidity! All their states are all bankrupt. They are all over the media making noise.. I just don't know why shooting people to death is crime.. It should have been an exercise to eliminate stinking basstarrds off the planet..

patrick89:
The same Cable that reported a false statement from wole Soyinka! If you believe this then you are a slowpoke! In "soyinka's voice"

I wrote MORROON and not slowpoke! Didn't soyinka used it too? Slowpoko ko fastpolo ni!

emmyw:
IMSU Lecturers Call-Off One Month
Strike Over Unpaid Salary

http://www.ngschoolz.com/imsu-lecturers-call-off-one-month-strike-over-unpaid-salary/

is it only that one what about the glorified secondary school called lasu! That churn out half baked graduates..

[quote author=DanielPop post=33921693]“It appears the current Executive Secretary has taken the staff agitation for her removal to a desperate point of dragging the outgoing administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to the mud by whipping up sentiments in the media at this critical time when the Nation is undergoing transition. The leakage of the letter by the Minister of Finance sent directly to the Executive Secretary of NIPC on August 12, 2014 and which has been in her custody, smacks of an act of irresponsibility and immaturity,”

Ahmad Ghondi, chairman of NIPC union, wrote in the petition.

how are we sure the Ghondi man or some others didn't leak the letter so that they will set the president against her. I work in an office, staff have access to files, anyone can photocopy a letter. there are also acknowledgement copies of a letter. my point is, if the truth must come out then a proper investigation should be done. and is the issue of the waivers true? that is a huge amount of money that will go along way to solving some of our problems.

ozoigbondu:
She was corrupt and her workers asked for her to be fired and she was fired.Full stop

And Abba Moro minister of Interior isn't corrupt and is capable despite killing job seekers?Or is it Diezani that deserves to keep her job or minister of power?

patrick89:
na your mama be never do well! You idiots are classic clowns! Do you mofos have any empirical evidence aside heresay against these amazons?

cursed be the day you were born and woe into the man and woman that brought a destined-for-destruction fella like you into this world. You attacked another person's mama because he made a comment that doesn't align with your sentiments.

fired for being corrupt? whatever you may say about Goodluck Jonathan, he has never fired anybody for being corrupt!

NgeneUkwenu:
This Never-do-well of a Woman and Jonathan were really on a mission to bankrupt Nigeria!

Can Someone now explain to me how Jonathan, Iweala, Stealer Odua and Dizieani Won't end up as prison mates?

Meanwhile, Jonathan has exactly 9 days left in office. From the perspective of activities at our vault, it’s like 12 days of Christmas out there!

What wrong did Okonjo-Iweala do? Didn't you read the part that said she wrote NIPC to question the indiscriminate and questionable granting of tax wavers?

boujaye:


muffuns, any news you hear as long as it is against GEJ, it is true even without verifying, including those of APC and lai mohammed

Mind telling us why the Woman was fired?
I'll let the insult pass.

lastpage:


Jonathan is the facilitator of the CABALS! He will probably end-up at Kirikiri the way these exposures are coming in
but then, #SaiBaba can simply re-appoint this woman back, after May29th..... and give her a free-hand to clean-up that Agency.
I remember Dora Akinyilu of blessed memory and how she cleaned-up NAFDAC and dealt a severe blow on those Drug fakers from even her own region of the country.
Those are the type of women we need in this country, under #SaiBaba's Govt.


BTW: Did anyone notice the "ethnic coloration" to those who oppose anything that exposes Jonathan's corruption?
Even when the evidence is "staring them in the face", they still pretend not to see or accept it!
Its a big shame!


Lastpage!

To Jonathanians, an asininity becomes profundity once GEJ is involved. Now they will either bend with the wind of CHANGE or break.

themilanway:


I have far more important things to do than to look in the sewage for your old vomit.

You know it will only make me puke

Have a nice day my guy

Guy u mature wella. luv all ur replies to severusnape. u must nt insult som1 to pass ur message across

okonjo iweala is blameless on this one, she is the one who called attention to the waivers. for those of you saying the figure is fake, it is the minister of finance who wrote the letter and quoted the figure and she should know. she might be wrong in other instances but the minister in this case was trying to help the government recover lost revenue. the questions should be

1. where waivers granted?

2. who granted those waivers?

3. was due process followed?

4. who are the beneficiaries of those waivers and if, those waivers where improperly granted then why?

this money belongs to Ngeria, with all the noise about the economy being in a sorry state, this should not be taken lightly

Goddex:
[size=13pt]APC propagandists seem to love '$20 billion' so much

1) Sanusu claimed $20 billion from NNPC was missing

2) Amaechi and progrethieves claimed $20 billion was missing from ECA

3) Now another #20 billion about NIPC[/size]

why he be say,na so so $20b dis clueless corrupt gej de thief.

patrick89:
don't mind them, they have borrowed even their senses too. You can imagine that stupidity! All their states are all bankrupt. They are all over the media making noise.. I just don't know why shooting people to death is crime.. It should have been an exercise to eliminate stinking basstarrds off the planet..

if not that shooting criminals like gej and u is a crime,and it wil not make me go to heaven, i would have kill almost all d criminals and saTANiod before may 29, because i don't want see any criminals and saTANiod as from june 1st.