IGR: NIS CG wants stoppage of Public-Private Partnership

Comptroller-General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) Muhammad Babandede has called on the Federal Government to end the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) used for the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the service.

Babandede made the call during the 2021 budget defence of agencies under the Ministry of Interior held in Abuja on Wednesday.

Our correspondent reports that the forum was organised by the Senate Committee on Interior chaired by Sen. Kashim Shettima.

The comptroller-general, who stated that the partnership was draining government’s revenue, said that the immigration service was tired of the agreement.

“What we want to do is that we are tired with agreement signed between us and some PPP project, and this PPP project costs government a lot of money.

“We want to exit.

“If the Senate can budget money because the agreement says they should be paid certain amount of money it is better for government to pay them up so that we do our job ourselves because they are not getting us good revenue.

“So, if this money is allowed and is paid to them, we can exit and run immigration as we want it run,” he said.

Babandede, however, said that the NIS’s 2021 budget estimate is N72.85 billion.

“Total Personnel Cost is N53.68 billion. The Personnel Cost includes: allowances for our foreign desk; we have 451 foreign missions across the world and the rest is paid directly to IPPIS and paid to our allowances as salary.”

He further said that the total Overhead Cost is N2.52 billio; Recurrent, N56.20 billion while capital is N16.65billion.

Sen. Shettima, answered questions on if the committee would increase the budget for the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCS) due to the recent jailbreaks in the country.

“I believe they must have captured some of the challenges that face them in their budget submission.

“We are going to subject it to microscopic scrutiny all their submissions and where additions or subtractions to be made, we will certainly address those challenges.

“Offices of the NIS were burnt down in Enugu and some other locations, and all those offices will be fixed.”

On the recruitment into the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Shettima said that the process was in its final stage.

“Be rest assured that we will tidy it up before the year runs out.

“It is not our primary responsibility to carry out that exercise, but we will urge the relevant government agencies to see to it that this employment is completed before the year runs out.”