Paschal Emeka, Abuja / Posted December 6, 2023
The Senator Ahmed Wadada Aliyu led Senate Committee on Public Accounts has indicted the management of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) and ordered Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) to remit the sum of N62.2 billion to the federation account.
The Committee disclosed their findings when its Chairman addressed journalists, after the members sitting with the agencies, on Tuesday.
The Committee informed that reports of the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF) should not be seen as punishment or an attempt to witchhunt anybody, but a constitutional requirement in promoting accountability and transparency, while managing public agency.
Explaining how and why the committee found the NPA wanting, the committee chairman said: “The NPA has been found wanting on the AGF’s annual report and also erred on the status enquiry. There are issues that arose in the Bonney, Calabar and Lagos Channels Managements.”
The Committee further informed that to look into the issues, it has respectfully written to the the NPA management, but regretted that some of the communications were responded to, while some were not responded to.
The Committee, however, added that with exception of the General Manager who came very late, using medication as excuse, when the Committee had called them severally, non of the management officers, according to it cared to come to respond to the report of the AGF.
He noted with concern that there were also issues of other indebtedness arising from shipping dues, among others, amounting to about $68 million.
The Committee also said that the mentioned sums of money were not part of the anomalies in the Bonney, Calabar and Lagos Channels Managements.
The Committee therefore gave 48 hours to the management NPA to appear before it or face the full wrath of the law
In the same vein, as a result of what the Committee saw as financial irregularities in the books of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), it ordered the agency to remit about N64 billion to the federation account.
The Committee went further to say that the amount the NCS should remit was among others, as a result of under remittance of revenue to the federation account.
However, the Committee accepted the NCS request that they will come on December the 19th, 2023 to continue their lawful duties, even as it ordered that the NCS’s CG appear before the Committee on the agreed date.