HoR to probe 39 abandoned projects, summons NIMASA for starving Maritime Academy of funds
By Isaac Job
The Federal House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety , Education and Administration said it will investigate 39 abandoned projects littered at Maritime Academy of Nigeria ,Oron before the projects were by the present Rector retired Commodore Dejua Emmanuel Effedua in the institution.
Speaking during the House Committee oversight functions at Maritime Academy of Nigeria ,Oron on Thursday, the Chairman of the committee Hon Khadija Bukat Abba frowned at the report by the Academy Rector that some contractors abandoned projects after collecting several millions of naira and escaped .
The committee chairman said all contractors who abandoned projects from the inception of the institution would be investigated and made to account for every Kobo collected to serve as a deterrent to others.
Abba who was represented by Vice Chairman of the Committee Hon Uduak Odudo said the House will summon the Managing Director of Nigeria Maritime Administration And Safety Agency ( NIMASA) for failing to remit statutory funds.
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Odudo who presided in the interactive session disclosed that the committee would write to the institution on getting back to Abuja, adding that the practice of abandonment of projects after tax payers’ money had been paid must not be allowed to continue.
“We will look back, to investigate the projects even from the inception of the school and so, when we get back to Abuja, we will meet as a committee and mandate the clerk to the institution because we cannot continue this way. They (contractors) are Nigerians, and if they have opportunity, they will embezzle the money and abandone the projects. So, when we get back we will look at these things, it is Nigeria money that is involved”
However, the committee resolved to summon the leadership of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency ( NIMASA) for failing to pay the statutory 5% allocation to the Academy for over a year now.
The resolutions followed a presentation by the Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (retd) informing the committee that the Maritime Academy,Oron have not received her statutory allocation from the agency in the last one year
“NIMASA only paid us 33 per cent of the statutory fund the last time they gave us money. We don’t have money now to even pay salary. The Academy was almost grounded before I was appointed as Rector.”
The chairman also mandated the Rector to expose those staff behind the leakages he talked about in his presentation, adding that if they are not exposed and appropriate action not taken against them, it would not serve as a deterrent to others.
“You also talked about leakages, most of the leakages that happened did not happen outside but inside and I am very sure that most of the Staff you came to inherit are still in this institution, you have to expose them because if you don’t expose them and appropriate action is not taken against them, it will not serve as a deterrent to others” the committee chairman stated.
The committee expressed sadness that the statutory 5% allocation from NIMASA has not being paid for upward of one year and therefore resolved to summon agency’s leadership before it.
The Rector had, in his presentation before the committee, lamented the state of infrastructural decay in the academy,
“The situation was such that the the International Maritime Organization( IMO) threatened to delist Nigeria as a place where Maritime students should be trained.
“People who had the opportunity of running the affairs of the institution were chasing mundane things,” he said.
