The Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, has denied allegations that it failed to remit N177 billion of its 2017 revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund, as required by law.
A statement made available to NAN on Thursday, November 29, 2018, by the NPA said the Senate’s allegation was “without foundation”.
The Nigerian Senate had on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, given its committee on Marine Transport three days to determine if the alleged N177 billion unremitted fund was in the custody of the NPA.
A member of the committee, Mohammed Hassan, had called the attention of his colleagues to the issue while raising a point of order. Mr Hassan said the agency in 2017 made a gross revenue of N303 billion, out of which N125 billion was spent but the remaining N177 billion was not remitted to the federal government.
The lawmaker said the management of the agency has rebuffed every move by the Senate to ascertain the whereabouts of the fund.
The NPA in its statement Thursday said total revenue generated by the Authority in the Year 2017 stood at N303.9 billion while total expenditure (inclusive of recurrent and capital) amounted to N205.8 billion.
Of the N303.9 billion generated revenue, the sum of N60.12 billion represents uncollectable revenue from concessionaires attributed to clauses in the concession agreements, which the authority said it is currently reviewing.
Consequently, the statement said, the operating surplus for the authority in 2017 was N38 billion.
“Therefore, the sum of N30.4 billion, which represents 80% of the operating surplus that the Authority is required to remit to the CRF in line with the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007, has been duly paid into the Consolidated Revenue Fund by the Authority with receipt of payment already issued by the office of the Accountant-General of the Federation,” the NPA said.
“These computations arise from the Authority’s management account pending the conclusion of the audit of the 2017 financial statement, which is ongoing.
“It is pertinent to also note that the Authority has already remitted the sum of N11.3 billion for 2018 CRF contribution into the Consolidated Revenue Fund with the use of Authority’s management account ahead of auditing for 2018.”
The NPA said it is ready to present all documents needed to provide clarification to the Senate committee on marine transport and the Senate.
“On a final note, while we appreciate the constitutional oversight role of distinguished senators on the operations of the NPA, we suggest greater restraint on issues that deal with the integrity of national institutions even as we assure of our respect for the Senate,” the statement highlighted.
