Reps begin NPA probe over $68.473m debt owed FG

The House of Representatives will on Tuesday begin investigating the Nigerian Port Authority, NPA and Terminal Operators (Nigeria) Limited over $68,473m debts owed the Federal Government on lease and throughput fees between 2006 and June 2022.

Chairman of the public accounts committee (PAC) of the House, Hon Wole Oke (PDP, Osun), who disclosed this Monday in Abuja, said they are investigating the Terminal Operator for using own exchange rate different from the official one approved by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in calculating revenue accruing to the Federal Government as contained in the query from the office of the Auditor General of the Federation.

The Managing Director of the Nigeria Port Authority (NPA), Mallam Mohammed Bello-Koko had  revealed in a submission to the committee that one of the port operators in charge of the Rivers Port, and Terminal Operators (Nigeria) Limited used its own exchange rate in calculating revenue accruing to the government.

Bello-Koko disclosed that PTOL used N116 to the dollar at a time when the official exchange rate was fixed at N305 to the dollar by the Central Bank of Nigeria in 2016.

The  submission dated July 27, 2022, which was in response to  a letter from the committee also revealed that 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 $68.473 million as at October 13, 2021.

The Auditor General of the Federation had indicted the company not paying its lease fees and throughout feed to the government as and when due.