Stakeholders in the Ports and Maritime industry have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to compel the administrative panel of inquiry set up by the Federal Government five months ago to probe the activities of the Nigerian Ports Authority, (NPA), to submit its report.
The stakeholders said the Federal Government was losing a lot of revenue while the industry is in crisis over the uncertainty created by the prolonged probe.
The 11-member administrative panel, chaired by the Director of Maritime services, Federal Ministry of Transportation, Suleiman Auwalu, was set up on May 10, 2021 by the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, to investigate the activities of NPA.
The setting up of the panel followed the suspension of the erstwhile managing director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman, on the orders of President Buhari on May 6, 2021.
President Buhari had approved Bala Usman’s suspension and the setting up of the administrative panel of inquiry based on Amaechi’s recommendation. The minister alleged that under Bala Usman, the yearly remittances of the operating surpluses by NPA from 2016 to 2020 were “far short of the amount due for actual remittance”.
Amaechi, whose ministry supervises NPA, said the agency under Bala Usman had not been financially prudent in the management of the agency since 2016.
However, while inaugurating the administrative panel on May 10, 2021, Amaechi ordered it to examine and investigate the “administrative policies and strategies” adopted by Bala Usman, and confirm compliance with extant laws and rules from 2016 to date.
He also asked the panel to “examine and investigate compliance with a communication channel, as obtained in the public service; examine and investigate the procurement of contracts from 2016 to date; come up with suggestions and advice that would strengthen the operations of NPA and forestall such occurrences in future; and any other matter that may be necessary in the course of the assignment”.
But, more than five months after it was inaugurated, the panel has not submitted its report, thereby causing anxiety and uncertainty in the industry.
The president, Nigerian Importers Integrity Association, (NIIA), Godwin Onyekazi, said major decisions that should move the industry forward and earn the government more revenue have been delayed because the acting managing director of NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, is “constrained on several fronts”.
“Go to NPA today and see what is happening. Major decisions are suffering. Sometimes simple approvals for ships to berth are delayed and no one seems to be in charge. Some port concessions have expired but no action is being taken to sign off the renewal”.
