House C’ttee Hearing: NPA, FRC disagree over N255bn liability

*As NiMET signs MoU with foreign company for revenue drive

Tom Okpe, Abuja

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) on Thursday disagreed on N255 billion liability incurred by the agency responsible for the governing and operation of Ports in the country at the ongoing House financial committee public hearing.

While FRC told members of the Committee that the NPA has only submitted its audited financial statements up to 2018 and yet to receive those for 2019 and 2020, the Authority said FRC was outdated, hence the liability.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, FRC, disclosed that the NPA has not been keeping to date with the submission of their audit 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 N255 billion. Their general liability is 235 billion. In our record, we have remittances of N179.6 billion, which gives rise to a net operating surplus of N255 billion.”

But in his reply, Emeka Ezengwu, who was speaking on behalf of NPA, said the FRC has an outdated account, giving rise to the N255 billion liability.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 4 years. The figure he is brandishing does not align with what we have.

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

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

“It is important that you reconcile with the FRC and 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.

“By law, when it comes to remittances, the FRC is superior to the Accountant General. This is a constitutional office; it is not just created by an act of the National Assembly,” Faleke said.

In his ruling, the Chairman said the Committee needs a comprehensive list of all agreements reached by NPA with its tenants, 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: “Even yesterday (Wednesday), 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 it in a rush but have already established desk offices.”

While responding to questions on low revenue by lawmakers, he said: “Actually, we initiated a project called mobilenet which entails collaborating through NCC to provide some telonet service to users and charge a token.

“Initially, it was a bit slow because it requires some investments in terms of infrastructure but, we have passed that stage and by next year, we will see improvement,” he added.