The House of Representatives has summoned the Minister of Transportation, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, and the Management of the Nigeria Port Authority, NPA over the revenue generated by the Agency which were not properly captured in the statement of account of the agency and other expenditures.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Public Accounts, Mr. Oluwole Oke handed down the directive in Abuja following the absence of the Minister, the managements of the NPA and the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC who were earlier billed to appear before the Committee on Thursday over the Audit queries by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
Though they were said to have pleaded with the Committee for another date for appearance in respect of the audit queries, Mr. Oke said that “In the spirit of fair hearing, the Minister and the management of the NPA have been given a July 8 date to appear before the Committee as well as that of the NRC on audit query which also raised against the Corporation.”
Mr. Oke said both the Minister and the management of the NPA would also explain the cost of services rendered to the Authority amounting to about N103.996 billion including channels and water ways maintenance (N65.130 billion) and Port and Quays Expenses of N38.412 billion.
“They are expected to respond to audit queries contained in the comments of the Auditor General of the Federation on the group financial statement of the Nigeria Port Authority for 2016.
They are expected to give a breakdown of the Ports and Quays Services income stating the respective income from each of the services, scheduled oil terminal dues, details of pilotage and service boats and the nature of rentals services offered and rates applied.
The Auditor General said that they are expected to answer questions from the lawmakers, giving breakdown of maintenance, budgetary provisions and evidence of work done on the channels and waterways as “examination of the accounts revealed that the channels and waterways maintenance rose from N44.427 billion in 2015 to N64.130 billion in 2016, an increase of over N20 billion.” He added.
The Auditor’s comments on the query suggested that the NPA incurred about N38.412 billion as service charge on the Ports and Quays and demanded that the management of the Authority provide details of how these charges were incurred and also to explain what they meant by the term “others” for which about N4.7 billion was spent.
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