The Senate, on Tuesday, took a swipe at two federal government revenue-generating agencies, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) over what it called glaring financial leakages amidst dwindling revenue of the federal government.
The Senate Committee on Public Accounts led by Senator Ahmed Wadada asked the NCS to refund the sum of N62.2B to the Federation Account.
The Senate directive was sequel to a query raised by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The query was titled, “Non Remittance of Levies into the Federation Account” (to the tune of N65,514,843,418.00)
raised in 2017 by the Office of the Auditor of the Federation.
The Senate Committee gave the NCS team led by Deputy Comptroller General of Customs, in charge of Finance, Admin and Technical Services, Mr F.O. Okun,
two weeks to appear again before it and provide evidence of remittance to the Federation Account.
The Chairman of the Committee expressed disappointment that for seven years, the NCS has not been able to make any reconciliation since the report was signed.
He said: “The NCS is one of the most reliable sources of revenue. If we continue to have this loophole, we shall forever continue to have leakages. If this continues, government will continue to lose revenue and borrowing will continue to service budget and deficit will have no end.
“Regardless of when it happens, government is a continuum and we must address the leakages.”
At a separate session with journalists, the Committee accused the management of the Nigerian Ports Authority of failure to account for over $1 being indebtedness of the terminal operators and another $68m outstanding Estate Rent and Shipping Dues.
Senator Wadada Committee indicted the management of the NPA of treating its summon with levity and gave it 48 hours to appear before it.
He said: “Before anything, I would like to reiterate what this Committee stands for based on the understanding and the responsibilities that are expected to be discharged by this Committee.
“This Committee relies partly and not wholly on the Auditor General for the Federation’s Audit report to discharge its responsibilities. Beyond, the Committee as well go on status enquiry where it writes Ministries, Departments and Agencies whenever it wants to know the status of these agencies whether those agencies and departments are in question.
“And the Committee based on its commitment to the development and growth of Nigeria is not out to witch-hunt anybody, or want to take anybody to the cleaners.
“The Committee under my stewardship with support of my distinguished members have had cause to say this not once, not twice, that we should understand that audited or Auditor-General’s report is not an indictment of any ministry, department or agencies of government, but rather a wake up call for us to know what was wrongly committed by who.
“Going forward, we should find way to correct the wrong to make the system better and we move on to the greater heights.
“Today, the Committee is compelled to say what I am going to say concerning the Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA). The Nigeria Ports Authority is found wanting on both ends, one, on the Auditor General for the Federation’s annual report and also, on ends of the status enquiry.
“There are issues around Lagos channel management, Bonny channel management and of course, Calabar channel management. On these issues, the Committee respectfully wrote the management of NPA management . Some of the communications were responded to, and some are yet to be responded to.
“Today, the Nigerian Ports Authority is supposed to have appeared before this Committee so that we look at queries raised by the Auditor General for the Federation. The management team is not here, the MD, Directors and other top management are not here. They rather chose to send a General Manager to us and at a time the NPA was called to the table, the General Manager was unavoidably absent. Though, she later came and complained that she went for her medication.
“Some of these queries have got something to do with indebtedness of terminal operators which is almost a billion dollars, eight hundred and fifty-two million dollars ninety-three thousand, Seven Hundred and seventy-seven cents.
“There is also an outstanding estate rent, shipping dues, and service boats of over 68 million dollars. The status of long outstanding debtors are all issues to be answered by the Nigeria Ports Authority. This is not to talk about issues surrounding Lagos channel management and Calabar channel management.”
“We will communicate to them to appear before the Committee in the next 48 hours to appear before this Committee or otherwise we will use all the instrument within the law to call them to order. Nobody should be allowed to disrespect the institution of the National Assembly.”
. TheWitness
