The Federal Government may soon commence the audit of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Akwa Ibom State as both parastatals are now at loggerheads over N18 billion statutory remittance.
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This is as the Transport Ministry has dismissed the rumoured plan to sack MAN Oron’s Rector/Chief Executive, Joshua Okpo.
According to the Act establishing it,
MAN, Oron is entitled to 5 per cent of NIMASA’s total earnings as its
statutory allocation and the money ought to be released quarterly with
occasional intervention funds also given to the school, being a wholly
government-owned specialised maritime institution.
But while NIMASA claimed N18 billion has
been given to the school from 2009 to date, the Academy is insisting
that the money was not given directly to it to run its affairs as it
should.
A source within the school alleged that a
substantial part of its funds from NIMASA was usually spent by
officials of the agency who awarded and executed various contracts
within the academy, not minding whether the projects met the school’s
demands and specification.
“Some of the contracts include the access road to the jetty, female cadets hostel
and swimming pool. As we speak now, October salary has not been paid
and some NIMASA staff are assuming lordship over the academy, seeking to
re-interpret the Act setting up the school,” the source said.
The ugly development has pitched the two
parastatals against each other and they are now in media war, completely
losing focus on their core functions. The unfolding drama, Daily Sun
learnt, may have angered the Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi,
who, according to sources, plans to audit NIMASA, headed by an Acting
Director General, Baba Haruna Jauro, and MAN, Oron, where Joshua Okpo is
Rector/Chief Executive. Amaechi, it was gathered, seeks to determine
what actually constitutes 5 per cent of NIMASA’s earnings. Daily Sun
learnt the Minister has already asked for a breakdown of the funds
released with supporting documents to know whether there are
discrepancies in the release and spending of the money.
“Any agency official or officials found
wanting or seen to have compromised or cornered government’s funds will
face the full weight of the law. The person will be sacked and
prosecuted. This is the era of change and there would be no sacred
cows,” a top government official told Daily Sun.
It was also learnt that Amaechi, in a
recent meeting with heads of the parastatals under his ministry in
Abuja, was shocked to learn that MAN, Oron, from 2011, when Okpo took
over as Rector, till date has been given N13 billion.
Okpo was said to have stirred the hornet
nest when he literally accused NIMASA of starving the Academy of funds,
but NIMASA boss defended himself by reeling out the N13 billion so far
given to the school under Okpo’s watch.
To get to the bottom of the matter,
Amaechi, sources hinted, has ordered a comprehensive audit of the
school’s books and on-the-spot assessment to ascertain whether there are
facilities on ground to justify the money allegedly given by NIMASA.
He reportedly said his vision was to see
MAN Oron modelled and run like the famous maritime institute, the Arab
Academy in Alexandria, Egypt.
He was however told that MAN, Oron today
is littered with abandoned multi-million naira projects, which the
management of the school will account for when Transport Ministry
auditors come visiting.
The Minister, it was also learnt, wants
to know why NIMASA was yet to install its Global Maritime Distress
Safety System (GMDSS) months after it was shipped into the country. He
also seeks to know why NIMASA under its present management went into the
building and operation of a technical school and a maritime university
when Nigeria is yet to get her training institution (MAN Oron) working
in full blast.
The academy, like its peers in other
parts of the, ought to have a training vessel for sea-time training of
cadets but that has not been made available for many years. This has led
to thousands of cadets not completing their mandatory sea-time training
and as such do not possess their Certificate of Competency (CoC).
Meanwhile, a top official at the Federal
Ministry of Transport, has described as false and baseless, the various
allegations of N13 billion fraud and the sack threat against the Rector
of MAN, Oron, Joshua Okpo was spurious.
‘Please disregard the stories. It’s not true. I don’t know why people wont verify a story before going public with it.
‘The Rector is not being investigated and
there is no threat of sack against him from the minister. Please
disregard it’ the source said.
By Uche Usim and Alex Akao
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