The suspended Managing Director of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, has given a record of remittance of operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Funds account.
Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi had written President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2021 saying that “It has been observed from the records submited by the Budget Office of the Federation that the yearly remittance of operating surpluses by the Nigerian Ports Authority from year 2016 to 2020 has been far short of the amount due for actual remittance.
Read Also: Sallah: Tailors make brisk business in Kano
“In view of the above, I wish to suggest that the financial account of the activities of Nigerian Ports Authority be investigated for the period 2016 to 2020 to ascertain the true financial position and the outstanding unremitted balance of N165.3 billion, ” Amaechi had said.
Hadiza Bala Usman’s position was contained in a letter dated May 5, 2021 to the Chief of Staff to the President, Amb Ibrahim Gambari, who conveyed to Amaechi the approval of the president for the investigation of the NPA.
“The attention of the Authority has been drawn to a letter conveying Mr. President’s approval for the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMoT) to conduct an audit of the accounts of the Authority and its remittances to the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CFR).
“This arose from a correspondence between the Budget Office of the Federation (BOF) and the Federal ministry of Transportation where the Budget Office of the Federation conveyed to the FMoT an observed shortfall of the Authorities remittances to the CFR. (copy attached for ease of reference)
“We wish to state that the Authority’s basis for arriving at the Operating Surplus on which basis the amount due for remittance to the CFRis guided by the Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 as amended and further based on the statutory mandate
“Part 1, S.3(1) (b) &(d) whereby the Fiscal Responsibility Commission issued a template for the computation of Operating Surplus for the purpose of calculating amount due for remittance to the CRF ( attached herewith as annex 2 is the template as conveyed to the Authority)
“Accordingly, the figures so provided by the Budget Office of the Federation as the Operating Surplus for the respective years on which basis they arrived at the shortfall are derived from submission of budgetary provision not the actual amounts derived following the statutory audit of the Authorities financial statements.
2017 and 2018 Remittances
“Audited Financial Statements of the Authority for the period 2017 and 2018 (copies herewith attached) provides operating surpluses of N76.782 billion and N71.480 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively as contrary to the sums of N133.084 billion and N88.79 billion arrived at by your office from the budgetary submission.
“In line with the template issued by the Fiscal Responsibility Commission, the accessible Operating Surplus of the Authority stands at N51.09 billion and N42.51 billion for 2017 and 2018 respectively.
“This amounts will give rise to a remittance due to the CFR in the sum of N40.873biIIion and N34.065 billion representing 80% of the surpluses for the year 2017 and 2018 respectively. (Attached herewith as annex 3 is the schedule of the computed template for the respective years).
“Accordingly, the Authority consequently made a remittance of N42.415 billion and N33.969 billion for the years 2017 and 2018 respectively for the full amount required as remittance for the period (attached herewith are the treasury receipts).
2019 — 2020 Remittances
“The Audit of the 2019 Financial Statement has been completed and awaiting consideration of the Authorities Board at which point the final figures for the 2019 operating surplus will be determined for consequent computation of the amount due for remittance to the CFR.
“But thus far the Authority has made a remittance of N31.683 billion for the 2019 remittance while the sum of N51.049 billion has also thus far been remitted for 2020 while awaiting the audited of the financial statement to determine the final amount required for both 2019 and 2020 at which point the Authority will make the payment of the balance as required. (Attached is are the treasury receipt for the respective payments).
“Based on the above, we wish to clarify the following:
- The Authority’s computation of its remittances to the CFR are concluded arising from numbers from Audited Financial Statements using the template forwarded to the Authority from the Fiscal Responsibility Commission as herewith attached and not budgetary provision
- That the Authority has remitted the full amount due it to CFR for the periods 2017 and 2018 arising from the Operating Surplus derived from the Audited Financial Statement for the period totaling N 76.384 billion as evidenced in attached treasury receipts.
- That the Authority has remitted a total of N 82.687 billion for the period 2019 and 2020 pending the audit of the financial statement at which point the amount so computed arising from the value of the Operating Surplus in the audited financial statement will be remitted to the CFR.
“We wish to request that the Chief of Staff requests the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation who are the statutorily custodian of status of payment to the CRF to provide clarification on the above so as to establish the true position of the Authorities remittances to the CFR.”
