KEMI OMONIYI
The Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, has said that the response from the Whistleblower Policy initiated by the Federal Government has since lost momentum.
Ahmed disclosed this while briefing the State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council Meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
She said that after embarking on engagements in the six geo-political zones, one of the main outcomes that was discovered is that people were concerned about their safety as a result of providing information.
As a result of the discovery, this prompted the Ministry to draft the Whistleblower Bill for 2022, which has been reviewed by the council and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act.
She said that the purpose of operationalising and putting in place a whistleblower bill was to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by government.
“The Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning presented a number of memos today. The first is the draft whistleblower bill for 2022. This memo has been reviewed by counsel and approved with a provision to ensure alignment with the Evidence Act. The purpose of operationalising and putting in place a whistleblower bill is to strengthen the fight against corruption and to also enable protection for whistleblowers that provide information for use by government.
As you know since 2016, the council had approved the setting up of the Presidential Initiative of Continuous Audit (PICA). PICA has been working in partnership with EFCC, ICPC, DSS, NFIU as well as of the office of the Attorney General of the Federation.
“We noticed that the whistleblower policy response has lost momentum. We embarked on engagements in the six geo-political zones and one of the main outcome that we found is that people are concerned about their safety as a result of providing information. So this bill is critical to ensure the effectiveness of the retention of the whistle policy.
“The second memo I presented to the Council today is a request for approval of council for the Finance Bill 2022 that is designed to support the implementation of the 2023 budget.
“If you recall at the public presentation of the budget to the National Assembly, by His Excellency Mr. President, the President has committed to the parliament that a 2022 Finance bill will be submitted to the parliament by the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning to support the implementation of the 2023 budget.
“So, we have been working on this bill and have done a lot of consultations. The bill we presented before Council today has five focus areas including tax equity reforms, climate change and green growth provisions, job creation and economic growth reforms, reforming tax incentives as well as generating revenue enhancing tax administration.
“The purpose of the tax equity reforms is to combat tax evasion and aggressive tax planning practices that some companies operating in Nigeria are involved but also enabling the utilisation of ICT tools and using international best practice to assess taxpayers tax on a fair reasonable basis.
“The climate change green growth focus will complement non fiscal reforms that are designed to reduce greenhouse emissions and also to facilitate domestic and international investment in climate adaptation, as well as mitigation and also to enhance green growth and create jobs.
“The third focus area, job creation and economic growth is also designed to complement the ease of doing business and other reforms to support capital formation by the private sector as well as to foster enabling business environmental for micro, small and medium enterprises for youth as well as women in businesses. It will also help to enhance the performance of businesses that are in the FineTech, the ICT, entertainment, fashion, sports as well as the art space.
“The fourth tax incentive is to phase out antiquated pioneer, and other tax incentives for mature industries and moving a revised set of incentives to a real infant industries, through economic governance reforms, we’ve also made proposals to reduce tax expenditure which is equivalent to foregone revenue to support the fiscal space and also based on statistics to gradually transition away from expensive and redundant tax incentives to incentives that are rewarding performance.
“The fifth Focus Area revenue generation and tax administration is to complement the ease of doing business and other reforms that enhanced tax administration, as well as introduced targeted this kind of non fiscal reforms to amend, address and cure defects in existing tax and non tax laws as well as regulations.
“This Finance bill is amending a number of fiscal laws, including the capital gains tax, company income tax, customs excise tariff Act, Federal Inland Revenue Service Act, personal income tax, stamp duties act, tertiary education tax, VAT act, Insurance Act, Nigerian police Trust Fund Act, as well as the National Agency for Engineering Act NASANI. finance control management act, as well as the fiscal responsibility.
“So, with this approval from Council, His Excellency Mr. President will be conveying to the National Assembly, a request for the consideration of this bill.
“The third, a power presented to the council and we got Council’s approval is for the design construction and supply of nine numbers Ballistic Riverian assault boats, as well as nine numbers patrol boats with all associated accessories in favor of Messers Sewa West African limited in the sum of N689,722,681.30 inclusive of 7.5 per cent VAT for the Nigerian customs service.
Speaking further, she said that the Head of Service of the Federation presented a memo on group life insurance cover for the period 2022 to 2023.
“This is an insurance cover that is covering all government agencies, military and intelligence agencies.
“Council approved the total sum of N9.24 billion for the insurance cover for 2022 to 2023. As you know, the insurance will take effect from the date of payment. And in Nigeria, by our laws, the insurance cover is 30 per cent of the annual the emoluments of any staff of government that is deceased and this cover is paid by the insurance company of the deceased staff.”
Also speaking, the Minister of State for Budget, Clem Agba, said one additional memo presented by the Minister of Finance and Budget and National Planning was the revised National Social Protection Policy.
“Council approved the revised national social protection policy 2021 to 2025. This revised national social protection policy is an offshoot of a previous policy that was implemented from 2017 to 2020. The review was carried out in collaboration with all relevant ministries departments and agencies at both the federal and state levels as well as other key stakeholders, including development partners.
“Recall that when the first policy was in place, there was no ministry like humanitarian affairs. Now we have that ministry. And since it’s part of the review process to do this every four years, the review had to be done.
“In review this policy statewide consultations were embarked upon to harness and advise ideas from all from all stakeholders for the efficient and effective coordination of the policy. The National Social Protection Council is to be set up to be chaired by His Excellency the Vice President, with the Secretariat domiciled in the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, the ministers of labour and employment and then the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, disaster management and Social Development who serve as Vice Chair of that council. Also, there’s going to be a technical working group, which will be co chaired by those two ministers.” he said
