The nation’s apex maritime regulatory organ, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) is among the six ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) says it is investigating, for allegedly contravening various sections of the FRC Act.
The FRC Chairman, Dr Aliyu Yelwa, listed the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC), Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Presidential Implementation Committee on the Sales of Government Landed Property (PIC), and the Niger Delta Development Corporation (NDDC), among the organisations.
These MDAs’ offences, according to Yelwa, allegedly ranged from non-submission of Audited Annual Financial Reports to non-remittance of the agreed percentage of their profits to the national treasury.
“Every year, every corporation must produce an audited financial report. It is from that report we check to see if they made profit or loss. If they made profit, 80 per cent of that profit is to be returned to the Consolidated Account of the Federal Government, and 20 per cent can be in the organisation’s books,” he said.
The FRC boss explained said that NIMASA was on investigation, because it allegedly claimed to have remitted US$ 2 million (about N314 million) as operating surplus for the Year 2009, but had no evidence to substantiate the claim.
“NIMASA is also yet to redeem its pledge to submit its audited financial reports from 2007 till date. In view of the flagrant disregard of all FRC’s requests by NIMASA, the Commission’s legal unit is getting the legal backing to compel NIMASA to comply,” he said.
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