Juliet Akoje in Abuja
The Public Account Committee of the House of Representatives yesterday has ordered the management of the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA) to hold an immediate reconciliation meeting with terminal operators in the nation’s ports with a view to determining the actual indebtedness by the companies to the federal government as contained in the various Audit queries from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.
The Chairman of the Committee Hon. Wole Oke ( PDP-Osun) gave the order following denial of one of the terminal operators listed by the NPA as being indebted to the Nigerian government to the tune of $4.04 million , Tincan Island Container Terminal which faulted the claims by the NPA management insisting that it was not owing the government a dime.
The lawmaker who gave the directive at the resumed hearing of the 2019 Auditor General of the Federation report, said that the Bureau for Public Enterprise and some of the Committee members should be part of the reconciliation meeting.
Oke said the reconciliation became necessary to rest the controversy between the two parties, since there was a total disagreement over the debt as contained in the Report of the Auditor General of the federation.
Tincan Island Container Terminal is one of the 18 terminal operators said to be indebted to the government to the tune of $753 million.
Earlier, he told the terminal operators that they were invited by the committee to state their own side of the story since the government was in dire need of money to meet certain obligations.
“We invited the NPA and they have made their submission and gave us their breakdown of what the terminal operators is owing them and that they tried severally to recover the money. For fair hearing, we have invited you because we cannot shelve your head in your absence.
“That is why we had to invite you so that we can hear your side your side of the story because we are at a cross road. Nigeria is looking for money. Our children are at home and we need to pay ASUU and we have other serious issues to attend to. You have heard how much you are owing based on NPA records”
However, General Manager, Finance of the company, Kunle Adigun said his company was not owing the NPA and government a dime, while accusing the NPA of failing to respond to several letters calling for reconciliation between them.
According to him, “Several times, we have made several appeals for NPA to come to the table for us to discuss. We have been writing letters since 2015, but no response. Our anniversary date is June because we started operation June 1, 2006. So, if there is going to be any changes, it should take effect from June 1.”
