Traffic on Apapa road following an early morning rainfall in Lagos last Friday. Photo: NAN

The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has reached to recent press publications alleging the failure of the Authority to remit the sum of over 713 Billion Naira into the federation Account since 2009.
The Committee on Public Finance of the on-going National conference made this known  in a report submitted to the conference.
According to the report, the Non-remittance of the Authority’s revenue to the Federation Account is in contravention of section 162 of the 1999 Constitution.
“Ordinarily the Management would not have reacted   to this mis-information and wrong insinuation, but considering the mis-perception it may cause amongst the wider public, we are constrained to put the records straight under the following points”, the statement said.
In a statement signed by the Assistant Manager Public Affairs, Mr. Iliya Musa and made available to The Tide in Lagos said, the Nigerian Ports Authority was established by the Nigerian Ports Authority Act, Cap N126 LFN, 2004, and has power to construct, equip, operate and provide seaport services to the general public.
According to him, the Authority is to be the commercial arm of the Government which has to operate almost like any other business and make profit before remitting its operating surplus to the Government, being the owner. This is net of all cost of undertaking operations, including development, maintenance of facilities, purchase of equipment and administrative expenses.
“In pursuance of the   above, the Authority was given financial autonomy under section 13-14 of the Ports Act to apply its revenue towards carrying out the operations, development of ports, purchasing of equipment before remitting the surplus to government.”
Mr Musa said Section 14 (1) of the Ports Act allows the Authority to maintain a general reserve fund into which, it sets aside appropriate amounts for replacement, contingencies and other purposes. The monies are to be applied for purposes of the Authority with the approval of the Minster as provided under section 14(2). However, with the coming into force of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the appropriations in respect of the Authority are approved by the National Assembly   by virtue of section 81 of the constitution.
Section 15 allows the Authority to apply its surplus revenues for its own purposes as it may determine, adding that with the coming into effect of the 1999 constitution, the surplus revenues of the Authority were made subject to the consolidated revenue fund established under section 81(1) of the constitution stressing that this supersedes section 15 of the ports Act in order to bring it in line with the constitution.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the Authority prepares annual reports not later than six months after the end of each year and submits to the Minister. It is only then that revenue surpluses are determined for remittance under the Fiscal responsibility Act when all costs as appropriated for it by the National Assembly must have been settled.
Because of the peculiarity of the industry, the requirement to pay all revenues directly to the Federation Account is not practicable as at the point of collection from third parties, the monies are not yet revenues of the Authority until the service and all associated costs are covered.