- As Reports shows Azerbaijan ‘operated secret $3bn secret slush fund
Mr Shettima Abba-Gana, Acting Chairman, Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), says adequate funding of the commission will translate to increase in Federal Government’s revenue generation profile.
Abba-Gana said this while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday in Abuja.
He disclosed that the commission currently lacked modern working equipment and personnel for effective field monitoring, adding that majority of miners in the country were engaged in illegal mining and sabotaging government of millions of naira.
He, however, commended the Federal Government for its approval of N30 billion for the Ministry of Steel and Solid Minerals.
“Let them be funded and let them have vehicles because you cannot go into the bush with saloon cars but with four-wheel drive and jeeps.
“These are terrains that are not motorable or with very poor roads and you need a lot of staff because Nigeria is large and we need people to go see what is going on in the field.
“We mentioned these lapses in our interim report and luckily N30 billion has been approved for the ministry; that is not enough, but at least it is a step in the right direction.’’
Abba-Gana disclosed said the commission was constantly engaged in a country- wide monitoring to sensitise states and local governments to the need to embrace diversification, to increase the revenue base of these states and the nation.
He said every state had a deposit of different types of solid minerals and urged state governments to develop interest in developing the sector.
He also called for the registration of illegal miners, to increase the nation’s revenue generation profile.
He said “if illegal miners are properly identified and given incentives, they will easily be captured into the tax net.
“What we need to do is register them; teach them modern mining; collect revenue from them and also let them expand.
“Help them with funding, organisation, marketing abroad and processing of the solid minerals.
“An illegal miner is not going to be ready to accept to come on board if he doesn’t know what his benefits will be.
“If you go and say you want to register them only for tax, they will probably not like it; but if you go to them with medical services, modern equipment and facilities for loan, they will willingly pay taxes,’’ he said.
The acting chairman explained that their registration would also assist the commission to have adequate statistics of the kind of solid minerals they were engaged in.
He said some of the minerals were actually security minerals which could be used in making bombs and other dangerous chemicals.
“So, it is important to know what mineral is being produced and where they are produced.
“It is also important to know who is producing them and where the minerals are going to.
“So as they are registered and tax is collected, the people are also trained to do proper mining.
“Unlike what is going on in Zamfara where lead and other poisonous chemicals are being used, killing people, endangering the future generation and destroying the land,’’ he said.
The RMAFC was established to monitor accruals into the Federation Account and the disbursement of revenue from it.
In the meantime, Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.8bn (£2.2bn) slush fund for two years to pay off European politicians and make luxury purchases, an investigation shows.
The money was allegedly channelled through four UK-based opaque companies.
People said to have been paid include European politicians who adopted a favourable attitude to the government.
There is no suggestion that all the recipients were aware of the original source of the money, it added.
The secret fund, nicknamed the Azerbaijan Laundromat, operated for two years until 2014, according to the investigation, carried out by a consortium of European newspapers and published by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)..
The origin of the money was unclear, the report said, but there was “ample evidence of its connection to the family of President Ilham Aliyev”.
There has been no immediate reaction from Mr Aliyev or Azerbaijan’s government.
At the time the scheme allegedly took place, the oil-rich ex-Soviet state was being accused of systematic corruption, vote-rigging and abuses, including the jailing of opposition politicians, human rights activists and journalists.
Much of the money was said to have been paid to lobbyists, journalists, politicians and businessmen.
According to the OCCRP, the scheme seemed to have been successful in, for example, persuading the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe to vote against a report critical of Azerbaijan in 2013.
The 47-member council – not part of the European Union – monitors compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights, and judges in Strasbourg enforce it.
The vote is currently under investigation and a report is expected by the end of the year.
The four opaque companies which the scheme used – two based in England and two in Scotland – have now been dissolved.
One of Europe’s leading banks, the Danske Bank from Denmark, processed the payments to those companies via its branch office in Estonia. It admitted not doing enough to spot suspicious transactions.
Other cash funded luxuries, including private education for well-connected Azeri families living abroad, the investigation added.
Additional report from BBC