The Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) clears the air on allegations of non-remittance of $853m leveled against it by the National Assembly
By Our Correspondent
The Management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) said that the collapsed breakwaters in Escravos, Delta State would be fixed by the year 2024. The Authority has also defended itself against the allegation that it failed to remit the sum of $852m and N1.8bn from private operators, blaming the situation on faulty concession agreement signed by the Federal Government in 2006.
According to Mohammed Bello-Koko, the Managing Director of NPA who appeared before the Senate Committee on Appropriations accompanied by the Executive Director Finance & Administration, Adenrele Adesina, and Assistant General Manager Budget, on Thursday, December 7, 2023, he absolved his agency of any wrongdoing before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts over $852m and N1.8bn unremittances from private operators.
He said the Escravos Breakwaters play major role in the provision of nautical access for vessels to Warri, Koko and Sapele Ports in Delta State.
Its collapse over the years has been greatly responsible for the shallowness of the Channel.
Speaking through his official X-handle (formerly Twitter), Bello-Koko said, “Remarkably, in 2024, we hope to start the port modernization process for the existing ports and fix the breakwaters at Escravos.
“This is paramount as it will help us in achieving maximum port efficiency, improving cargo handling capabilities, and reducing the turn-around time of vessels”.
Instructively, the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation had in the 2019 Audit Report, alleged that NPA did not collect remittances which amounted to $852m and N1.8bn from terminal operators.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts, on the strength of the audit queried NPA on Tuesday, December 5, 2023 and directed its Managing Director, Bello-Koko, and other management staff, to appear before it unfailingly within 48 hours.
Responding to the committee’s directive, the Bello-Koko explained to the committee that the lump sums of $852m and N1.8bn, raised in the queries, were an accumulation of non-remittances from private port operators who came on board through the 2006 concession agreement.
Bello-Koko also explained that faulty concession agreements signed with the private operators by the Federal Government in 2006, largely accounted for the non-remittances for which NPA is being held responsible for today.
The Managing Director of NPA stated that, “The $852m and N1.8bn non-remittance by private operators to NPA, are largely caused by faulty concession agreements the Federal Government signed with them in 2006 when the ports were concessioned.
“The concession agreements were faulty in the sense that some of the operators are facing encumbrances in different ways to cover the space concessioned for them which also encumbered them to remit what is due from them to NPA.
“The encumbrances in question range from the inaccessibility of some portions of areas leased, by concessionaire, communal encumbrance and volume change or turnage amount.”
He told the committee members that the Federal Government that signed the concession agreement with the private operators even contributed to encumbrances faced by the concessionaires at the beginning by not removing structures that belonged to it from the right of way of the affected concessionaires.
Defending the authority further, the NPA boss insisted, “Out of the $852m, going by our in-house assessment, $504m are accumulated unremitted levies due to encumbered areas.
“However, we have been able to recover $232.2m and N269.4m from the N1.8bn.
“We have gotten consultancy from the World Bank for review of the concession agreements which would be free from any form of encumbrances”.
On the second query of outstanding debts of $ 67.45 million and N32.266bn, the NPA boss told the committee members that the debts were not incurred by the NPA but by the defunct Nigerian Shippers Councils whose debtors are no longer traceable.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Senator Aliyu Wadada, told the NPA boss to furnish the committee with their financial statement and way out for the government to write off the legacy debts.
