Nigerian embassies steal visa fees, says Auditor-General
By Festus Owete
January 18, 2010 11:51AM



The office of the Auditor-General of the Federation (AGF) has indicted four Nigerian embassies abroad for not remitting monies they collected as visa fees and for other items to the federal treasury in 2008.

Consequently, it has asked the permanent secretary of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs to explain the anomalies.

According to the 2008 Audit Report, which was forwarded to the National Assembly in October last year, the Nigerian embassy in Paris, France collected as revenue a total of N271,810,955.20, but did not remit the money to the federal government.

The 284-page report, which was signed by the acting Auditor General of the Federation, G.F Ogunshina, said the non-remittance contravenes Financial Regulation 302, which requires the issuance of Treasury Receipts by all Sub-standards or revenue collectors for all revenue collected by them. The report stated that the mission was instead issuing temporary receipts for revenues collected by them.

The report also said that the Nigerian Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal collected € 101,902.82 (N21,756,822.73) without remitting it, but instead spent the money, contrary to Financial Regulation 323.

On its part, the Embassy of Nigeria in Moscow generated US$94,819.00 (N138,443,515.16) as revenue from visa between January and December, 2008 but did not pay it into the treasury.

The report says: “Financial Regulation 412 stipulates that the authority conveyed to officers controlling votes by recurrent warrants is limited to the amounts provided under each subhead in the approved estimate and no expenditure on any subhead of the recurrent estimate in excess of the provision in the approved estimates may be authorized by any officer controlling a vote, without approval of the National Assembly which will be sought by means of an application for virement or supplementary provisions.

“Contrary to the above provision, the Nigeria Embassy, Moscow, Russia expended the sum of N227,822,248.84 in excess of the approved provision under the recurrent subheads of expenditure between 2006 and 2008 fiscal years. The permanent secretary has been informed of this anomaly for his comment.”

On the country’s embassy in Athens, Greece, the audit report said contrary to the extant regulations, it collected the sum of €31,765.00 (N6,782,005.38) without issuing Treasury Receipts even as it expended another N41,188,307.30 in excess of the approved estimates on 17 various recurrent subheads during the year under review.

Contravened regulations

In the Nigerian embassy in Dakar, Senegal, according to the report, CFA 8,814,638.88 (N2,250,313.00) was paid to 18 contractors in cash, thereby contravening the financial regulation which requires that payment to firms shall be made only by cheques.

It added that, “CFA 7,454,000.00 (N1,902,986.98) collected as revenue and entered in the register, but Treasury Receipts were not issued to the payers even when the mission had the Treasury Receipts in abundance.

“Hence it is difficult for me to confirm that (N1,902,986.98) as entered in the register was the actual revenue collected. Besides, it contravenes the financial regulation which requires that every sub-accounting officer or revenue collector shall issue a receipt for each sum paid to him.

“The permanent secretary has been informed of these irregularities for his comments and necessary action,” the report states.


http://234next.com/csp/cms/sites/Next/News/National/5513482-146/nigerian_embassies_steal_visa_fees_says.csp

The level of lawless and corruption, is sinking Nigeria!.

Nigerian Passports at Immigration Office

Men,

Dis is so sad.
So dis pple can stil go as far as dose places to steal our money
na wa oooo

SHALOM

Oh,do these guys think that those folks abroad are not part of the looting men of Abuja.Is there any difference between the corruption in Abuja and various state governments to this one.They should spare us the nonsence talk.

nigerians will always be nigerians,

sad! corruption goes beyond landmarks it just depens painly on mentality.  how come they make so much money? didnt know dat people were that interested in coming here dat they made so much money.

Wrex:

nigerians will always be nigerians,

It does not have to be like that - what happened to integrity . I understand in the u.k you have pay an extra £50 ontop of the visa fees and it has to be cash . That itself is an earning of almost £100,000 (N2 480, 000 ) missing from the Nigerian coffers

blacksta:

It does not have to be like that - what happened to integrity . I understand in the u.k you have pay an extra £50 ontop of the visa fees and it has to be cash . That itself is an earning of almost £100,000 (N2 480, 000 ) missing from the Nigerian coffers

Small money!

WHEN DID "I DON'T CARE" (AONDOAKA ,THE A.G.F) START CARING? WHEN HE COULD TRAVEL TO LONDON TO DEFEND AN OFFICIAL THIEF AND ABSOLVE HIM OF WRONG DOING. THAT IS THEIR CHANCE. [color=#006600][/color]THEY HAVE BEEN CHEATED FOR TOO LONG BY THEIR ABUJA COUNTERPARTS.

@ Blacksta

"It does not have to be like that  - what happened to integrity . I understand in the u.k you have pay an extra £50 ontop of the visa fees and it has to be cash .  That itself is an earning of almost £100,000 (N2 480, 000 ) missing from the Nigerian coffers"


Sorry this is a big lie. Just got my Ecowas Passport last week at the High commission in UK and it only cost me £60 in total (£40 payment online while £20 postal order).

@Wrex

[/b]Nigerians will always be nigerians[b]

Yes you are right, when people like blacksta will continue giving false information without no proof.

for all of you that are vexing, what would you do if you were 1 of the said ambassadors? embezzle.com

Who are the stupid auditors that did reports on three embassies alone. How many embassies do we have abroad? nonsense and totally incomplete and unreliable report, I am 100% sure all Nigerian foreign mission abroad are involved in Visa fee stealing. We shouldnt be acting like this people are God and untouchable, Let us shake all of them, In other countries Government fear and repect their citizen only Nigeria government look the other way, It is time to make them fear us, Let us start "Mutallabing" the season of mutallabing is here, lets go there,

This is really annoying! 

naija_swag:

Small money!

Omo, £100,000 no be small money ooh!

Again this is just one of their many avenues for exertion.

The only new information in this report is that the Auditor general is just finding out that many Nigerian embassies and High commissions are "cash and carry" operations.
Sometimes they are so brazen you will think you are back in Nigeria.
In case he doesn't know, sometimes they also charge you to "expedite" whatever it is you want from the embassy.

They should have remitted the money so the bigger boys in Abuja would eat it instead.
In Naija, it is chop i chop. If they don't chop this money, someone else would have.

*They should have found a way to work the books so they won't get caught. lol
I doubt these are the only embassies doing it. Its unlikely people would be punished because I believe it is probably an act that has been practiced for years.

Is this real??
God! Things have gotten very bad. Raise a revolutionist, a true revolutionist.

momey:

This is really annoying! 

Sorry , You ain;t seen nada

I'm surprised that the Nigeria Embassy in UK was not mentioned considering how disorginised they are.

Nigerian embassies is Nigeria in foreing lands so, dont expect nothing different, moreover when they remit these cash down to naija no be the same thieves that are milking us dry in buja that will take them again, what of the various taxes we pay, they end up in one persons pocket. naija is a country we all know is full of corrupt people

  hunger na bastar[size=1pt].[/size]d! 

that is not a news,-----tell us how oil & gas money been are been stolen every day.

blacksta:

It does not have to be like that - what happened to integrity . I understand in the u.k you have pay an extra £50 ontop of the visa fees and it has to be cash . That itself is an earning of almost £100,000 (N2 480, 000 ) missing from the Nigerian coffers

naija_swag:

Small money!

Check your calculation is N 24,800,000 not N 2,480,000

I don't think this is true. When i first saw this report I did called one of my close friend who is a staff in one of the embassies mentioned above and asked him of it, he told me that the statement by the AGF was untrue. First he told me that the guys in Min. of foreign Affairs here in Abj do owe the foreign commissions allocations up to 3 months, sometimes 6 months and during these periods, these foreign commissions would have to source for funds to pay for workers salary, taxes and other contigencies, so when the fed. Govt finally pay, they (foreign missions) would have to use this money to clear off debts/loans. He told me confidentially how some bad eggs down here in Abuja still wanted to make some profits out of this allocations but the embassy put thier foot down. That he can even vow that those embassies they mentioned above are the most honest foreign commissions. So I think there's more to it that meet the eyes. Come to think of it, when did/do Nigeria govt start(ed) exposing the corruption of other govt officials in Nigeria - except when they want to blackmail. So let the AGF eat this cheap lie/blackmail.

No surprise here!

@Bluhazel
One of my Nigeria's Ambassador confirmed what you wrote. Most of the time, they use the visa and passport money to run the missions

That's a known fact! Some of the Consular officers refuse to have secretaries. It's that bad and open too.

safariman:

@Bluhazel
One of my Nigeria's Ambassador confirmed what you wrote. Most of the time, they use the visa and passport money to run the missions

Na wah oh!.

@ tosinbobo1

The Nigerian embassy in London up till the 4th of January 2010 charged an extra £50 (cash or postal order made out to The Nigerian High Commission) for passports, ( thats in addition to the $110 paid on line).

It was only from the 4th of January that the fee (processing fee as they called) is now £20, and the passport fee now $60.



www.nigeriahc.org.uk/passport_requirements.html+nigerian+passport+fees&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk">http://66.102.9.132/search?q=cache:UOpbzIMttmEJ:www.nigeriahc.org.uk/passport_requirements.html+nigerian+passport+fees&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

@ Nipalm

True talk

Yes, but if you read Blacksta comments above. He said they even collect cash at the high commission that's why i disagree with his false comment. This will now mislead most NL readers, !

@ tosinbobo1

True Word. They never insisted on cash, i even saw a chip and pin machine on their paying in counter, but no one used it, Naija!!!

Guess paying by postal (made out to the nigerian high commission) i felt like the money was going directly to Nigerian Government ( my feelings though, rather than paying my cash which could develop legs/wings).