NASS Tackles Immigration Service for Consultants Managing Visas and Passports

NASS Tackles Immigration Service for Consultants Managing Visas and Passports

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives Committee, PAC of the National Assembly (NASS) has taken on the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) over the hiring of consultants to handle visa issues and passports in country missions around the world.

Therefore, the committee chaired by Dr Busayo Oluwole Oke on Wednesday summoned the Home Secretary, the permanent secretary of the ministry, the Acting Comptroller General of Immigration, to appear before it to deal with the matter.

The committee issued the summons to those concerned when the Service’s Acting Comptroller General, Idris Jere, represented by Assistant Comptroller General, Budget Olubusola Fashakin, appeared before the committee due to a request from the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation. against the SNI.

The chairman of the committee lamented that the horrific incident is costing the country a lot of money and should be stopped immediately as there were staff sufficiently trained for the same purpose.

According to him, “We visited your embassies and the Auditor General asked about some missions, so we visited South Africa and Atlanta, United States. We found out that Nigeria is losing a lot of money because of your operations. You have hired consultants to manage your passport and visa platform

“In our opinion, NIS staff have been trained to handle visa and passport matters. This is your main mandate. So, on what basis do you now hire consultants. So what are you doing in the offices. So your men are idle, wandering the streets, this is not acceptable to Parliament, something must be done to stop the wasting of the economy

“I’m giving you a scenario. In South Africa, on an income of $ 213, a consultant took $ 90. Of that $ 213, only $ 15 went into the Nigerian purse. This particular consultant manages 14 countries. And Nigeria is bleeding out that window and we would continue to borrow money to fund our budget and someone sitting in the corner of their room is making $ 90 on each candidate. It would not continue.

“The Minister of the Interior, the Permanent Secretary, the CG of the Service must appear before this committee to express themselves on this issue. You have a letter from this committee asking you to provide this committee with the contact details of all the consultants you have hired and the agreement you signed with them. Nigeria is bleeding through this window

“What are your staff doing? Why did we train and hire you? Your staff are idle, roaming the streets, sitting in offices, and the consultants are doing your job and taking our money.

“The Home Secretary, the Permanent Secretary, the GC must come up with the agreement you signed and give reasons why they must refuse trained and employed staff to do this work. You also put Nigerians at risk. Data protection. We owe Nigerians a high duty of care and we would discharge it. “

The Committee also ordered the NIS to provide it with procurement records for the use of money raised through service-wide votes and deployed for capital purposes from 2013 to 2018.

The committee said this was necessary because of discrepancies in NIS’s submissions to the committee on how funds have been managed over the years.

By Prnigeria