NIMASA, Maritime Academy bicker over N18bn remittance

…As FG dismisses sack rumour
By Uche Usim and Alex Akao
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.
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.