• Hadiza Bala-Usman insists NPA remitted all surplus funds

The suspended Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, will early next week appear before a probe panel over N165.32bn she allegedly failed to remit to the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

The panel headed by a director in charge of maritime at the Federal Ministry of Transportation may also expand its probe to audit the accounts of the NPA, a Daily Trust report has stated.

Bala-Usman was suspended as NPA MD and was immediately replaced with an acting MD via a statement on Thursday by a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu.

The travail of the suspended NPA boss is said to be a fall-out of a cold war between her and Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi, who reportedly accused her of ‘bypassing’ him in key decisions of procurement and other major official matters.

Daily Trust reported that the latest quarrel was around the reappointment of the MD and constitution of the new board of the NPA without Amaechi’s input.

Amaechi, in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari dated March 4, 2021, had called attention to the audit report of the NPA account, especially the unremitted operating surpluses between 2016 and 2020, as flagged by the Budget Office of the Federation.

The letter entitled ‘Remittances of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund Account (CRF) by the Nigerian Ports Authority from 2015-date’, was signed by the minister.

It read in part, “It has been observed from the records submitted by the Budget Office of the Federation that the yearly remittance of operating surpluses by the Nigerian Ports Authority from year 2016 to 2020 has been far short of the amount due for actual remittance.

“In view of the above, I wish to suggest that the financial account of the activities of Nigerian Ports Authority be investigated for the period 2016 to 2020 to ascertain the true financial position and the outstanding unremitted balance of One hundred and sixty five billion, three hundred and twenty million, nine hundred and sixty two thousand, six hundred and ninety seven naira only (N165,320,962 697).”

The minister asked the President to approve the audit of the NPA accounts, adding, “approve that the account and remittance of the NPA in the period of 2016 – 2020 be audited to account for the gross shortfall of remitted public funds.”

The minister’s request, according to the minutes on the one-page document by the President, was approved on the 17th March, 2021.

According to the Audit Report for 2017 released by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (OAGF) in December 2019, the NPA was queried over alleged irregularities in contract awards and payments.

The report by the accountant- general office said in its findings that about N7.5bn in contract sum was not properly accounted for at the NPA under Bala-Usman.

The document said the NPA awarded the contract for Shore Erosion Control Work at Akipelai, Ayakoro and Otuoke towns in Bayelsa State for N7.5bn.

The audit report suggested that as of November 11, 2015, about N4.24bn was paid to contractors in four payments certificates.  That represented about 56.61 per cent of the contract amount.

The audit report had indicated that a “review of documents and the Bill of Quantities under Bill No. 1 (General) attached to the payments revealed that mobilisation fee of N1.12bn paid to the contractor was supported by a conditional bank guarantee from Zenith Bank Plc with a validity period of 365 days.”

The report said the “guarantee, which expired on March 2, 2013, was contrary to the provisions of Section 35(1a) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 and Financial Regulations 2933 ’i’ (2009) which provided for submission of an unconditional bank guarantee or insurance bond.”

It also stated, “The sum of N19.5m was paid for the purchase of three Toyota Hilux vehicles without any evidence that the vehicles were purchased.”

It found that the sum of “N13.5m was provided as an annual running cost for the project vehicles, out of which N6.75m was certified and paid to the contractor without evidence it was quoted for.”

The report added, “The sum of N11.25m certified for compensation of properties to be affected by a project and paid in certificate No.3 had no records on how the money was utilised nor the beneficiaries involved.

“The sum of N12.5m provided for community relations was certified and paid vide certificate No. 3 with no supporting documents to validate the payment.

“The sum of N128m provided for insurance of the work and insurance against damages to persons and properties was certified and paid through certificate No. 3 with no evidence that any insurance policy was undertaken.?

The auditor-general also found that while N3.9bn was the value of work executed for the contract based on the Principal Manager’s report on Interim Valuation Certificate No. 4 dated  November 11, 2015, about N4.24bn was the amount paid.

“During the inspection of the project, it was revealed that the contractor had since abandoned the project site; and the duration of the project had since lapsed without approval for its extension,” the report added.

The audit report recommended that the managing director of the NPA should be sanctioned in line with extant regulations for these infractions.

Bala Usman: NPA remitted all surplus funds

But Hadiza Bala-Usman has denied any wrongdoing.

In a letter dated May 5, 2021 addressed to the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Ibrahim Gambari, Bala-Usman said the purported failure of the NPA to remit an outstanding balance of N165.32 billion from 2017 to 2018 was a misrepresentation of facts.

She said contrary to the figures given by the budget office as outstanding operating surplus, the NPA had remitted all that was due to the CFR — as stipulated in the fiscal responsibility act of 2007.

She faulted the net profit as listed by the budget office, saying it was in excess of the actual amounts and that it was contrary to the template provided by the fiscal responsibility act.

She stated, “Accordingly, the figures so provided by the Budget Office of the Federation as the Operating Surplus for the respective years on which basis they arrived at the shortfall are derived from submission of budgetary provision not the actual amounts derived following the statutory audit of the Authorities financial statements,” she said.

The statement read in part, “The authority’s (NPA) computation of its remittances to the CFR are concluded arising from numbers from Audited Financial Statements using the template forwarded to the Authority from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission as herewith attached and not budgetary provision.

“The authority has remitted the full amount due to it to CFR for the periods of 2017 and 2018 arising from the Operating Surplus derived from the Audited Financial Statement for the period totalling N76.384 billion as evidenced in attached treasury receipts.

“The authority has remitted a total of N82.687 billion for the period 2019 and 2020 pending the audit of the financial statement at which point the amount so computed arising from the value of the Operating Surplus in the audited financial statement will be remitted to the CFR.”

We’ve not been indicted – NPA

The General Manager, Corporate and Strategic Communications of the authority, Jatto Adams, in a statement on Friday said the NPA was not indicted.

He said, “While audit queries are part of the standard operating procedures to entrench accountability in government Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the NPA has, at this moment, not received queries of the nature being circulated in the media.

“The management of the authority has answered audit queries to the satisfaction of the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation in past years and is committed to providing evidence that all our operations have followed due process in the event of any queries in the future.”