The Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria can wipe out quackery in the system if they get the needed support from the government to fully regulate the profession

THE Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN, has said the institute has the capacity to tackle sharp practices by tax professionals and eradicate quackery from the profession. But, the institute said this can only be achieved with the support of the government.

Adefisayo Awogbade, registrar and chief executive, CITN, said CITN can tame the menace if members are involved in the full practice of taxation in Nigeria. According to him, eradicating sharp practices and quackery from the taxation industry is a simple one for the institute as it has been given the charter to regulate tax practices and administration in the country, and has procedures in disciplining defaulting members.

He maintained that though there are a lot of quacks in the profession, CITN can completely stem out quackery in the system if they get the needed support and assistance of the government to fully regulate the profession. “This means that if only our members are involved in the full practice of taxation in Nigeria, we have procedures that we follow to discipline defaulting members.

“We have a fully established investigation panel that would investigate defaulting members that has been involved in gross misconduct. When after investigations and the member was proven to have actually carried out the act, then the member would be referred to a disciplinary tribunal and this disciplinary tribunal has equal status with that of any high court in Nigeria. So any member that knows that if he is investigated and found culpable and that his licence would be withdrawn, would not want to  involve himself in any act that would bring the institute to disrepute,” he said.

According to Awogbade, CITN cannot embark on bringing members before a panel if the members have not been reported. “We have some reported cases and their cases are still with the investigation panel but some are going to be referred to the tribunal any moment from now.”

– Mar. 1, 2019 @ 17:37 GMT |