The Senate Committee on Public Accounts has given the management of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) a 48-hour deadline to produce explanations about the whereabouts of approximately $1.8 billion in the Authority’s coffers.
It also vowed to use all legal means to bring NPA’s management to heel if it violated the ultimatum.
Senator Ahmed Aliyu Wadada (Nasarawa), chairman of the committee, told journalists Tuesday at the National Assembly that the NPA management has been unable to explain where the fund is.
Senator Aliyu also chastised the NPA’s Managing Director, Mohammed Bello Koko, for allegedly refusing to come before the panel, claiming that his agent was nowhere to be located when the interaction was scheduled.
“No one is above the law, and no one should take the National Assembly for granted,” he stated. We are the people’s legislature. We are here on the people’s mandate, and we will not tolerate disrespect from anyone.”
He also revealed that the NPA’s administration was expected to provide the panel with information on $68 million in “outstanding estate rents, shipping bills, service boats, and other items.”
He went on to say that the status of long-standing loans and debtors is one of the concerns that management is obligated to address.
Others include Lagos Channel management, Bonny Channel management, and Calabar Channel management, according to him.
Senator Wadada also stated that his committee was investigating the Nigerian Customs Service for under-remittance of N62 billion in revenue generated by the agency.
He stated that the under-remittance of revenue was disclosed in the 2017 Auditor General Report, which is currently being reviewed.
The query reads,
“In the report of NCS summary of the monthly collection 2017 total collection for the federation account were N691bn.
“However, the receipt of NCS collection and remittance into Federation Account 2017 showed actual remittance into the account with the CBN for the year under review to be N629bn.
” A comparison of these two documents revealed an under remittance N62bn.
“There was no footnote or any form of additional information attached to the two reports showing the reasons for the discrepancies neither there was any form of communication from the management on the intention for the future reconciliation or remittance.
“The above anomalies could be attributed to weaknesses in the internal control system at Nigeria Customs Service Headquarters Abuja.”
The chairman of the committee, therefore, asked the Customs to come up with their defence on the allegation of under-remittance within two weeks.
(Post Credit: Daily Trust)