Ajibola Abayomi Lagos Th e Senate and Offi ce of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) are set to compel Integrated Logistics Services Limited (Intels) to remit all government monies in its custody into the designated Treasury Single Account (TSA). Sources at the upper legislative chamber disclosed that the lawmakers were recently alarmed to discover that huge amounts of federal government revenue were being withheld by the company.
About $200 million is believed to be in Intels custody which is yet to be remitted to the NPA. Th is fi gure according to investigation, represents rents, lease and through put fees in Onne and Warri ports where the company operates. Between 2010 and 2016, Intels reportedly remitted close to $343 million from the service boat collection which represents 27 percent of total service boats revenue it collected for NPA.
A lawmaker who spoke on condition of anonymity querried the rationale behind a private company warehousing federal government funds and spending from it. He said aside from being unlawful, the system could lead to fraud as it took rigorous oversight work to be discovered. “’Th ey have no right keeping government monies in their accounts.
If they have spent from it without due appropriation and recourse to budgetary provision, we will get them to pay for it. Th ere will be no compromise on that,” he said. About $1 million of the amount is for lease and throughput fees while rent at Onne being owed is over N3.3 billion Intels recently increased rent for some of its third party tenants from N30 million to N100 million in a renewed desperation to raise monies belonging to NPA which the company had allegedly spent unlawfully without recourse to current government policy.
Th is has caused some of the tenant companies to threaten a pullout from the Federal Ocean Terminal and Federal Lighter Terminal in Onne Managing Director of NPA, Hadiza Bala Usman had disclosed to reporters on assumption of offi ce last year that the authority under her watch will not compromise on the Treasury Single Account (TSA) policy of the federal government. Usman also told reporters late last year that all payments from lease and other contracts to NPA agreed upon in United States Dollar terms will not be changed to naira as she insists on keeping to the terms of various agreements entered into with service providers.
Th e TSA policy requires that all government revenues generated by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are paid into a single account domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Under an amortization deal between Intels and NPA, Phase 4 port expansion programme, according to senate sources have been fully amortized while a Phase 4b for which the company has been spending NPA funds has not been fully amortized.
Some senators observed that the volume of funds being expended on the ongoing Phase 4b was unnecessary as the facility is not urgently in need to receive or ship out cargoes. Expending scarce government funds on a project that is not of utmost priority at a time funds are needed for other critical areas of national development has been viewed as economically unwise by the lawmakers.
Th ey posit that the existing cargoes coming through Onne port are not up to fi fty percent of the port’s handling capacity thereby making the Phase 4b facility expansion a less urgent investment.
