The Comptroller General of Customs, Col. Hameed Ali on Thursday told the House of Representatives that the Agency is yet to contain the smuggling of arms into the country because the smugglers are protected by members of border communities.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Comptroller General made the revelation at the Agency’s 2020/2021 budget defence session organised by the House Committee on Customs.
He explained that the Agency’s biggest problem with stopping arms smuggling is that border communities gang up against the Agency’s Officials, kill, and burn their vehicles. He called for better collaboration with other Security Agencies and communities to stop Arms smuggling.
The Customs boss was responding to a plethora of questions from members of the Committee on the subject.
The Comptroller General also said that the service had not recruited personnel since 2004 as he explained that It is only the President that can decide except the Service is able to convince the President on having enough funds to pay salaries.
He told the Committee, that of the 13billion naira budget made available to the service, from 2018-2020, only about N17 million, was utilized, provoking outrage from the lawmakers.
The CG, also denied that the agency is involved in budget manipulations as he insisted that some budget provisions regarding purchases of vehicles and other capital projects were rolled over to other years because the projects attached to them were either delayed or not approved by the Bureau for Public Procurement.
The Acting Chairman of the Committee, Leke Abejide, along with other members had earlier, picked holes in some recurring subheads in every budget of the service, starting from 2019.
The lawmakers said they would scrutinize the budget to ensure optimal value.
