NPA, FRC disagree on N255bn liability operation of ports

…As NiMET signs MoU with US company to boost revenue

By Christiana Ekpa

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) yesterday disagreed on N255 billion liability incurred by the agency responsible for the governing and operation of Ports in the country.

While FRC told members of the House of Representatives Committee on Finance that the NPA has only submitted its audited financial statements up to 2018 and it was yet to receive that of 2019 and 2020, the Authority said FRC was outdated, hence the liability.

The Federal Agencies made their submissions at the ongoing 2022-2024 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper (MTEF & FSP) interaction with the House of Representatives Committee on Finance and Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAS) at the National Assembly Complex, Abuja.

Bello Gulmare, Head of Monitoring of FRC disclosed that the NPA has not been keeping to date with the submission of their auditor accounts.

Gulmare said: “The NPA has only submitted up to 2018 audited financial statement. We are yet to receive 2019 and 2020. Their liability is N255billion. Their general liability is 235billion. In our record, we have remittances of N179.6billion, that gives rise to net operating surplus of N255billion”.

But in his reply, Emeka Ezengwu, who was speaking on behalf of NPA, said the FRC has outdated account, giving rise to the N255billion liability.

Ezengwu insisted that: “2019 has already been approved by the board, 2020 is ongoing. FRC has not done any reconciliation with the NPA for the past 4years. The figure he is brandishing does not align with what we have.

“We have done reconciliation with Revenue Mobilization and Fiscal Allocation Commission (RMFAC). We are also engaging the accountant general office right now and we have a letter from them inviting us for reconciliation”.

In his intervention, James Faleke,  Chairman of House Committee on Finance said FRC is the body statutory empowered by the Constitution of Nigeria to monitor remittances of MDAs.

“By law, when it comes to remittances, this office (FRC) is superior to the Accountant General Office. This is a constitutional office—it is not just created by an act of the National Assembly.

“It is important that you reconcile with the FRC—you should be eager to reconcile them. If their report is laid before the National Assembly, and you are found wanting, it has consequences. So, reconcile within two weeks” Faleke said.

Ruling on the matter, the Chairman said the Committee “need a comprehensive list of all agreements reached by NPA with its tenant, indicating how much each of those tenants are supposed to be paying on a monthly or annual basis and copies of the agreements be attached”.

Also appearing before the Committee was the Director General of the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet), Mansur Matazu who disclosed that the Agency has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a United States-based firm Earth Networks to boost its revenue base.

Matazu said: Projection of revenue for 2022, 2023, 2024, we have been so careful because weather service, you can’t predict weather but we are in private partnership. Even yesterday we signed a MoU with a US Company for partnership in order to boost our revenue base especially in the services for oil and gas and other components.  We can’t implement in a rush but we already established desk offices.

While responding to questions on low revenue by lawmakers, he said: “Actually, we initiated a project called mobilenet whereby it entails collaborating through NCC to provide some telonet service to users and charge a token but because we are new in the area so initially it was a bit slow because it requires some investments in terms of infrastructure but we passed that stage and by next year we will see improvement.

“Moreso, as weather service you have to transform from rudimental to visibility and from visibility to relevance and it is only when you reach relevance stage before people will see and can pay. That’s the stage we are now. We have more than 10 partnerships we are working.  We are seeing positive signals”.