Why Reps Summoned Rotimi Amaechi And NPA

Why Reps Summoned Rotimi Amaechi And NPA

The House of Reps invited the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the Management of the Nigeria Port Authority, on Thursday, over an unremitted sum of N166,685,929,000 income generated by the Authority as of December 31, 2016.

iexclusive News Nigeria report that the aforementioned sum was not correctly recorded in the agency’s statement of account and other expenses, according to the parliamentarians .

The summons was issued by the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts, Rep Busayo Oluwole Oke, in the absence of the minister.

The management of the Nigerian Petroleum Authority, NPA, and the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, who were scheduled to appear before the Reps Committee on Audit to answer questions from the office of the federation’s auditor general.

They were claimed to have begged with the committee for a different date to come before it in relation to the audit queries.

Oke stated that in the spirit of a fair hearing, the minister and the NPA’s management were given till July 8 to testify before the Reps committee as well as the NRC on an audit question raised against the Corporation.

He went on to say that both the Minister and the NPA’s management will explain the cost of services supplied to the Authority, which totaled N103.996 billion, comprising channel and canal maintenance (N65.130 billion) and Port and Quays Expenses (N38.412 billion).

According to him, “they are expected to answer to audit issues contained in the Auditor General of the Federation’s comments on the Nigeria Port Authority’s group financial statement for 2016.”

“They are expected to provide a breakdown of the Ports and Quays Services income, showing the respective income from each of the services, scheduled oil terminal dues, pilotage and service boat details, and the sort of rental services given and rates applied.

“The Auditor-General stated that they are expected to answer questions from lawmakers, providing a breakdown of maintenance, budgetary provisions, and evidence of work done on the channels and waterways.

As “examination of the accounts revealed that channel and waterway maintenance increased from N44.427 billion in 2015 to N64.130 billion in 2016, an increase of more than N20 billion.”

“The Auditor’s comments suggested that the NPA incurred approximately N38.412 billion in service charges on the Ports and Quays and demanded that the Authority’s management provide details on how these charges were incurred as well as explain what they meant by the term “others,” for which approximately N4.7 billion was spent.

“According to the Auditor-General, additional review of the NPA’s finances revealed that Intels Integrated Services Limited was overpaid its commission by N2.099 billion.

“The Minister and NPA management are also expected to explain what happened to the N643.006 million in dividend revenue received from their joint venture partners, as well as interest income of around N97.8 million and N28.7 million from bank deposits and interest on loans and receivables.

“Other queries against the NPA include administrative expenses of N61 billion, professional charges of N638 million, donation and subscription of N1.88 billion, exchange loss of N7.3 billion, defined benefit expenses of N11.4 billion, and director’s salary of N4.2 million.

“The Auditor General’s query, signed by Adolphus Aghughu and dated May 24th, 2021, also identified what it called understatement of depreciation charges to the tune of N6.4 billion,” emphasizing that “the provision made against eight classes of property amounted to N4.472 billion as opposed to N10.891 million as determined during vetting.”