Senate questions FIRS over N1.6 billion budget on welfare package for retirees

The Senate Committee on Finance, yesterday rejected the idea by the Federal Inland Revenue Service FIRS to appropriate the sum of N1.6 billion as welfare package for its new retirees in 2016.

The, FIRS justified the idea by stating that the they are having an annual event to recognize its retired staff because they hadn’t been able to hold the event for the past 2 years because they didnt have money then.

The senate committee also complained about the N700 million budget for medical bills of staff as well as the over N16 billion put aside as salaries for staff yet to be recruited.

Speaking during a budget defence session with the FIRS, Chairman of the committee, John Enoh said
“We will need a presentation that explains some particular cases of variation,”.The committee also stated that the FIRS proposed the sum of N350 million in the 2015 budget, received an approval of N148 million but only spent N116 million and wondered what happened to the rest of the money.

The committee also rejected the appropriation of over N16 billion for salaries of 1250 staff yet to be recruited in 2016 by the FIRS.

Source: Vanguard