The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday confirmed the disengagement of officials linked with missing 130 million liters of petrol.
A high ranking source in the ministry, who did not wish to be named, made the confirmation to newsmen yesterday in Abuja.
The source said: “a committee has submitted it’s report and NNPC has recommended their disengagement”.
The officials were linked to the missing petrol stored at private depots through a thoroughput arrangement.
Recall that Mr Henry Ikem-Obih, a Chief Operating Officer (Downstream) in NNPC, had on March 17, revealed that about 130 million litres stored at the Capital Oil & Gas depot and over 30 million litres in MRS Limited depot, all in Apapa area of Lagos, were not found when needed.
Ikem-Obih had said the infraction by the two downstream companies was a clear violation of existing contract which prohibited the firms from tampering with the volumes in their custody without express permission of the corporation.
He said the companies were called to explain and given two options to either return the full volume of what was stored in their depots litre-for-litre or pay the full value of the products taken without approval.
He had also mentioned that NNPC alerted the Directorate of State Service (DSS), the Economic Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) and relevant committees of National Assembly with oversight function on the corporation’s downstream operation to help recover the assets.
The officials were reported to have been sacked and later advised to resign, but are now officially disengaged from the services of the corporation.
FIRS Plans electronic tax clearance certificate
The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) says it will soon introduce electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC) system to  help reduce fraudulent certificates.
Director ICT, FIRS, Mr Kola Okunola, said this in a presentation at the ongoing training by Journalism.com Ltd., in collaboration with FIRS in Abuja, yesterday
He said that the implementation of the e-TCC verification system had reached an advanced stage, adding that it was undergoing user’s acceptance test before deployment to production.
“TCC will be out in the next four weeks. It will provide an e-repository of all TCCs issued by FIRS.
“It will enable FIRS Staff and authorised third parties to verify tax clearance certificates, thereby reducing the incidence of fraudulent certificates.
“It automatically sends Tax Clearance Certificates to the emails of taxpayers and also enables them to request for and print their TCCs online,’’Okunola said.
He said that the service recently commenced modalities for implementation of  robust VAT automation mechanism for power, telecommunications, e-commerce, financial services, oil and  gas, insurance, major hotels, malls and hospitality sectors.
Okunola said that the essence of VAT automation in the sectors was to help ensure transparency of tax remittance within the industry and help block leakages.
“ Meanwhile, FIRS management is currently adding additional payment gateway channels such as e-Transact to help expand the scope and widen the tax net,’’he added.
Okunola said that regular conduct of taxpayer sensitisation was ongoing, adding that FIRS established the Federal Enlightenment and Engagement Tax Team (FEETT) to educate taxpayers on their tax obligations and rights.
According to him, FIRS has also installed customised digital signage that had been installed in FIRS Large Tax Offices nationwide to enhance taxpayers enlightenment as part of the efforts geared towards continuous taxpayer education.