The Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation has issued seven queries on the audited accounts of the Nigerian Ports Authority in 2017.
The queries include standalone financial statements, non-current assets (depreciation, addition to fixed assets, property, plant and equipment, and interest in joint ventures), current assets (cash and cash equivalent, trapped fund in Enterprise Bank, inventories, trade receivables, etc.), liabilities, statement of profit and loss, and other comprehensive income, expenditures and administrative expenses.
The Auditor-General, Adolphus Aghughu, in an audit report sent to the National Assembly, dated May 24, 2021, a copy of which was obtained by newsmen on Friday, demanded an explanation from the management of the NPA on its audited accounts, which he said was submitted to his office on February 22, 2019 for comment, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
The Auditor-General also queried the status of the Staff Home Ownership Scheme as well as the N1.5bn deposited as initial takeoff fund with Aso Savings and Loans Plc, which Aghughu said served as an agent for the creation of mortgages and the subsequent collections of repayments on the same mortgages, adding that the NPA later severed relationship with the bank, following the Federal Government directive on Treasury Single Account implementation in 2015.
The Auditor-General also demanded an explanation from the NPA on the current status of about N2.334bn received from shipping companies in 2013 as tracking fees, which was deposited with First City Monument Bank and was supposed to have been transferred to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in 2017.
He also demanded an explanation from the NPA on how the sum of N116.680m was expended, budgetary provision and evidence of the work done.
Recall that the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts invited the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the management of NPA to appear before it on July 8, 2021, over the queries.
