The suspended Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman has reacted to allegations of looting the NPA’s yearly remittance operating surplus to the tune of N165billion.
According to Usman, the figures of the yearly remittance arrived at by the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi were inflated.
Amaechi was said to have played a significant role in uncovering the alleged looting of N165 billion at the NPA under the watch of Usman as MD/CEO.
The NPA is a government-owned enterprise which is under the Federal Ministry of Transportation.
Amaechi had written a memo addressed to 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.
Responding to the allegations, Usman in a memo addressed to the Chief of Staff, dated May 5, 2021, a day before she was suspended, argued that 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.
According to her, the figures provided by the budget office as the NPA’s operating surplus for 2017 and 2018 were inflated.
She stated that the audited financial statements of the NPA for the 2017 and 2018 provide operating surpluses of N76.782 billion and N71.480 billion contrary to the N133bn and N88.79 billion respectively cited by the Minister.
The memo partly reads, “Audited Financial Statements of the Authority for the period 2017 and 2018 provides operating surpluses of N76.782 billion and N71.480 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively, as contrary to the sums of N133.084 billion and N88.79 billion arrived at by tour office from the budgetary submission,” she wrote.
“In line with the template issued by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, the accessible Operating Surplus of the Authority stands at N51.09 billion and N42.51 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively. This amounts will give rise to a remittance due to the CFR in the sum of N40.873 billion and N34.065 billion representing 80% of the surpluses for the year 2017 and 2018 respectively. (Attached herewith as annex 3 is the schedule of the computed template for the respective years). Accordingly, the Authority consequently made a remittance of N42.415 billion and N33.969 billion for the years 2017 and 2018 respectively for the full amount required as remittance for the period.”
