By Ebuka Onyekwelu, Ph.D
The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Chijioke Ojukwu, Esq., has cautioned the general public against making any government payment, charge, levy, or fee relating to building plan approval into private bank accounts.
Addressing concerns from applicants seeking government approval for their building plans that private accounts are issued to them for payment, the Commissioner said that applicants should never pay into any private account. “There is a prevalent case of applicants complaining that a private account number is provided for them to pay the assessment fee. I want to make it clear that every assessment issued to any applicant in the Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development must be in writing, contained in an assessment sheet, dated and properly signed by the issuing officer. Every fee that must be paid to the government must be paid directly into the government’s revenue account,” Mr. Ojukwu said.
Reiterating his Ministry’s commitment to the highest professional conduct, the Commissioner said that “the first rule is: if it is not documented, it is not official. The second point is that no official of the Ministry is legally permitted to issue out a private account number for the collection of any government assessment fee or revenue,” he emphasized. Ojukwu also stressed that “it is a red flag when anybody is issued an assessment fee through a text message or orally. It is also a red flag when any official of the Ministry of Physical Planning and indeed, when any government official provides a private account number for the collection of revenue”, the commissioner added, reiterating that once an official government revenue bank account is not provided for any government payment, “it is fraud.”
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