By Paul Effiong, Abuja
Special ad-hoc panel of the House of Representatives investigating the deduction of taxes and sundry charges from civil/public servants earnings and multiple bank charges on customers account has issued a four-day ulttimatum to commercial banks to submit the requested documents on their charges.
The investigative panel insisted on the mandatory appearance of only the chief executive officers of the financial institutions at the hearing, vowing to reject the representation of any CEO without an authorisation letter to that effect.
Speaking yesterday during the continuation of hearing, the Chairman of the committee, Kelechi Nwogu vowed that his panel will not hesitate to utilise legislative powers against financial institutions that flout the directives.
He, however, informed that his panel had extended invitation to the Ministry of Finance, Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation, OAGF, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and commercial banks operating in Nigeria on the investigation.
Members of the panel explained that commercial banks are perpetrating illegality by deducting inexplicable charges from civil servants, as well as public servants accounts.
The panel also rejected the representation of the CEOs of GT Bank, Zenith Bank, Access Bank and other commercial banks who pleaded for additional weeks to enable them arrange their documents before appearance.
“You cannot appear here without an identity. We are not here on our own. We are here on the mandate of the people that elected us into parliament.
“We have resolved to meet next week Wednesday. You must submit the requested documents on or before Monday.
“We will go through all the documents and we will put you on oath.
“It will not be well if we invite you here again and you tell us the same story. We have given a deadline that any bank that fails to submit the requested documents on Monday must be sanctioned,” the chairman said.
He added that the panel is not leaving any stone unturned to unravel why commercial banks engage in spurious deduction of charges on their customers account.
Other members of the panel, notably Chidi Mark Obeta, Dominic Okafor and other members, while speaking in support at the hearing, demanded that the chief executive officers must appear before the panel unfailingly.
