The managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Hadiza Bala-Usman, has clarified claims in the Auditor General’s reports that the NPA is withholding remittances meant for the Federation Accounts
Bala-Usman who was a guest on Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily on Friday said the NPA has remitted all funds dating as far back as 2016.
“We have insisted that all competition around remittances are prioritized. I started in 2016 July and from then henceforth, I have ensured that we have made payment as and when due, so that we don’t have any carryovers and indeed, some of the non-payments arising from those years, we have had to make payments to them and one of the concerns with the issue of audited statements is that you need to audit your statements and with that, you will be able to determine actual amounts,” she said.
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“But even before your statements are audited, you need to now make those payments. That way, after the audit, we’ll know if there is a balance or not and when I joined we had inherited unaudited statements for 13, 14, 15 financial statements.
“We had to work hard to meet up with and audit the backlog to enable us to meet up. Thank God now we have been able to meet up, our audited statements are up to date and we are making the necessary remittance.”
Meanwhile, she also condemned the attack on the corporate headquarters of the NPA and the Tincan Island Port Office, in Lagos by hoodlums during the #EndSARS protest.
According to her, the incident has slowed down activities at the ports which had already been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
