Federal Government will on Monday, commence the probe of the suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, over alleged non-remittance of over N165 billion operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund by the NPA management under her leadership.
This is as some reports suggest that the administrative probe panel, headed by the Director of Maritime at the Federal Ministry of Transportation, may also expand the scope of its probe in accordance with the presidential approval to audit the accounts of NPA.
Documents sighted by newsmen showed that the government discovered some discrepancies in the remittance of operating surpluses by the NPA to the Consolidated Revenue Fund for two consecutive years under the leadership of Bala-Usman.
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The findings from the report indicated that a total of about N73.61 billion (N56.3 billion in 2017 and N17.31 billion in 2018), which was generated within the two-year period was not remitted to the CRF as expected by the government, although the suspended NPA boss provided explanations to the contrary.
Also, the Federal Ministry of Transportation in a May 4, 2021 letter to the President claimed that the NPA failed to remit N165.32 billion to the CRF from 2016 to 2020 and called for an investigation and audit of the financial accounts of the authority.
The suspended NPA Managing Director responds to audit probe, in a letter, with reference to MD/17/MF/VOL-XX/541, dated May 5, 2021 and addressed to the Chief of Staff to the President, Bala-Usman said the NPA was aware of Buhari’s approval for the Federal Ministry of Transportation to conduct an audit of the accounts of the NPA and its remittances to the CRF.
The letter was entitled, “Re: Request for the record of remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Funds account by the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
In the letter, she explained that the audited financial statements of the NPA provided operating surpluses in 2017 and 2018 that were contrary to what was arrived at by the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President.
he letter stated that the presidential approval for the audit of the NPA accounts arose from a correspondence between the Budget Office of the Federation and the Federal Ministry of Transportation in which the budget office observed a shortfall of the authority’s remittances to the CFR.
The letter read in part, “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 your office from the budgetary submission.”
“We wish to state that the authority’s basis for arriving at the operating surplus on which basis the amount due for remittance to the CFR is guided by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as amended.”
