Reps Probe NPA, PTOL Over Unremitted Fees

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives is investigating the Nigerian Ports Authority and Ports and Terminal Operators, (Nigeria) Limited (PTOL) for allegedly failing to remit feed accruing to the federal government of Nigeria.

The fees, which are, lease and throughput fees that was collected between 2006 and June 2022, amounted to $68.473m.

The committee is also investigating PTOL for allegedly using an exchange rate that is different from the offiycial approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria in calculating revenue accruing to the government.

The Office of the Auditor General for the Federation (OAuGF) raised the issues in an audit query in the annual report presented to the National Assembly.

The Managing Director of the NPA, Mohammed Bello-Koko, had in a submission to the committee, alleged that one of the port operators in charge of the Port Harcourt port in Rivers State and PTOL used their own exchange rates in calculating revenue.

He said PTOL used N116 to the dollar at a time when the official exchange rate was fixed at N305 to the dollar by the CBN in 2016.

The written presentation by the NPA, dated July 27, 2022, was in response to a letter from the committee.

According to the NPA, even while using another exchange rate of N151 agreed to after reconciliation, the terminal operator was still indebted to the government to the tune of $68.473m as at October 13, 2021.

The OAuGF had indicted the company for not paying its lease and throughput fees to the government as at when due.

The company in a counter claim said contrary to the query, it had been remitting its lease and throughput fees to the NPA as at when due.

A supporting document submitted by the NPA to the committee tabulated the payments made by two concessionaires (BUA and PTOL) on lease and throughput fees between 2006 and June 2022. The table, however, showed disparity in the figures owed the government by the company.

While the document said PTOL was given a bill of $11,333,333.31 and it paid $3,333,333.31 in 2008, the outstanding balance put against the firm was $17,194,444.67 instead of $8m.

Similarly, the bill given to the company for its operation at the Rivers Port Complex in 2019 stood at $10,080,000. However, while the document indicated that the firm paid $3m outstanding, the balance against it was put at $102,714,749.66, a figure far above the bill given to it as its lease fees.

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