The House of Representatives’ Public Account Committee (PAC), says it is investigating the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA), and Terminal Operators (Nigeria) Limited, over $68,473million debts owed the Federal Government on lease and throughput fees between 2006 and June 2022.
The Committee, chaired by Busayo Oluwole Oke, is also investigating the Terminal Operator for using its own exchange rate different from the official one approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in calculating revenue accruing to the Federal Government as contained in the query from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The Managing Director, Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko, had revealed in a submission to the Committee that one of the port operators in charge of the Rivers Port, and Terminal Operators (Nigeria) used its own exchange rate in calculating revenue accruing to the Federal Government.
In his submission, Bello-Koko said PTOL used N116 to $1 at a time the official exchange rate was fixed at N305/$1 by the CBN in 2016.
The submission, dated July 27th 2022, in response to a letter from the Committee, also revealed that even while using another exchange rate of N151 agreed to after reconciliation, the terminal operator was still indebted to the government to the tune of $68.473 million as of October 13, 2021.
PTOL used N116 to $1 in calculating revenue accruing to the Federal Government at a time the official exchange rate was fixed at N305/$1 by the CBN in 2016.
The Auditor General had indicted the company for not paying its lease fees and throughput fee to the government as and when due.
However, in its submission, the company claimed that contrary to the report of the Auditor General, it had been paying its lease fee and throughput fee to the NPA as and when due.
A supporting document submitted by the NPA to the House committee tabulated the payments made by two concessionaires (BUA and PTOL) on lease and throughput fees between 2006 and June 2022.
A close study of the document however showed a huge disparity in the figures being owed the government by the company.
For example, while the document suggested that in 2008, PTOL was given a bill of $11,333,333.31 and paid $3,333,333.31, outstanding balance against them was put at $17,194,444.67 instead of $8,000,000.
Also, due to various discrepancies in the actual amount, a series of reconciliations were done, including a joint meeting with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), PTOL and NPA, which was held on December 14, 2021 to determine what was owed by the terminal operator, but without much success.
Against this backdrop, the House Committee has directed that Bello-Koko and the Terminal Operator to appear before it on Tuesday for further investigation.
