No less than 50 top officials in the ranks of directors, deputy directors, and assistant directors have been redeployed by the new Executive Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Muhammad Nami.
In addition to the 50 directors, the massive shakeup reportedly affected over 100 other staff members of the Service, a development that is one of the strategies the new executive is using to meet the agency’s revenue target.
Some directors were said to have been promoted to key positions. Some of the affected positions include Coordinating Director, Compliance Enforcement Group; the Transition Lead Compliance Support Group; Director, Planning Reporting and Statistics; and the Director, Debt Management.
[READ MORE: Customs redeploys officers at border)
What you should know: Nami, who took over the position recently from Babatunde Fowler, had raised the revenue generation bar to N8.5 trillion and has since been trying to settle into the agency.
It is also safe to say he is following in Fowler’s steps because his predecessor also redeployed officials too after he assumed office on 25th August 2015.
“When Fowler assumed office, he redeployed officials too because he needed those he can trust to do the job. I believe that these things are routine and it is not only happening in FIRS.
“When the Comptroller General of Customs (CGC), Col. Hameed Ali assumed office the same August 2015, he also redeployed customs officials and he has been doing it routinely,” an anonymous source said.
[READ MORE: Customs redeploys officers at border)
Speaking on the transfers/redeployment, the Head of Communications and Servicom Department, FIRS, Wahab Gbadamosi explained that it is a normal procedure as transfers are done in the agency routinely at least almost every quarter, given that the service has over 10,000 staff. He said the objective of this is to place the right staff in the right department for effective service delivery.
He also stated that the redeployment was necessary with the aim of achieving the N8.5 trillion target in 2020.
