The Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala-Usman has revealed how the revenue from the pilotage agreement between the Federal Government, Ports Authority and Integrated Logistics Services (Intels) was shared.
Bala-Usman told an ad-hoc Committee of the House of Representatives investigating the crisis between the Agency and Intels that the contract agreement was silent on the sharing formula of the revenue generated by Intels.
Details of the Contract
According to Bala-Usman, the agreement allowed Intels to take 28 percent of the generated revenue for its services while noting that the agreement was silent on the sharing formula for the 72 percent balance between Intels and NPA. This loophole made Intels remit arbitrary payments to the government through NPA at its discretion.
“Apart from the 28 per cent agency fee accruable to Intels, there was no agreement on how the balance of the 72 per cent revenue collected should be shared and this was done at INTELS discretion before now
Hadiza Bala-usman
The age-long battle between NPA and Intels
Intels, in October 2017 had been drawn in a running battle with the NPA over the termination of the pilotage agreement with the firm, based on advice by Abubakar Malami, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
The company had threatened legal action, but later backed down and made assurances that it would comply with the Treasury Single Account TSA rules. This led to the issuance of ultimatum to Intels to pay $48million into the TSA.
The NPA boss said the $48 million is the amount Intels ought to have remitted to the government between November 2016 and December 2017.
She confirmed the remittance of $28.1m into the TSA by Intels and she also added that logistic firm is currently owing the government $19.9 million as outstanding revenue collected out of an initial $48 million.
Moving Forward
It is however disheartening how the logistics firm has short-changed the Federal Government in revenue remittances under the subsisting contract.
Those who drafted the agreement are economic saboteurs and such must be named and shamed for allowing Intels to get away with so much to the detriment of the wealth of the country.