Suspended Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, is further being investigated over fresh allegations of unremitted Value Added Tax deductions to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) to the tune of over N62 billion.
The New Diplomat had reported how the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi was said to have played a significant role in uncovering the alleged looting of N165 billion at the NPA under the watch of Bala-Usman as MD/CEO.
In addition to the allegations bordering on the N165bn unremitted funds, an insider source at the Ministry of Transportation who was quoted by the Punch further revealed that Bala-Usman also allegedly failed to remit VAT deductions running into billions of naira and in foreign currency denominations to the FIRS.
According to the source, the suspended NPA boss allegedly failed to remit $148,845,745.04 to the FIRS, which might be equivalent to N56,635,805,987.72, according to the official exchange rate of Sunday.
Also, the source alleged that Bala-Usman didn’t remit the sum of €4,891,449.50 to the FIRS, which might also be equivalent to N2,263,818,013.93 according to the Sunday’s official exchange rate.
Additionally, a sum of £252,682.14 was allegedly unremitted to the FIRS, which might be equivalent to N134,358,598.50 according to the official exchange rate.
Speaking further, the source also disclosed that NPA is also being investigated over allegation that it contravened the policies of government on the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
According to the source, the NPA allegedly spent N4.2bn on CSR programmes in 2017 as against N29m in 2016 which accounted for an increase of 14,310 per cent.
The CSR programmes are charitable donations drawn from a company’s revenue in line with company’s policies. In Nigeria, CSR initiatives mostly involve sponsorship in sports, beautification of roads, giving donations and project implementations. Some of these projects include provision of borehole water, youth empowerment, schools and healthcare centres for the communities.
The NPA is a government-owned enterprise which is under the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
The New Diplomat earlier reported that Amaechi had written a memo addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari, seeking his approval to demand for the audit of the yearly remittance and account of the NPA between 2016-2020.
According to the Minister, the NPA has been far short of the amount due for actual remittance between 2016-2020, which accounted for an outstanding unremitted N165billion.
However, Bala-Usman in her defense, stated that the figures of the yearly remittance arrived at by the Minister were inflated.
According to her, the basis for arriving at the operating surplus of the NPA, upon which the Budget office of the Federation (BOF) and the Federal Ministry of Transportation calculated the amount due as remittances to the federation account, was flawed and not in line with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2007.
