Harboursandport: Lagos---- Nigerian Ports Authority
(NPA) has given a 14 day ultimatum to the management of Intels Nigeria Limited
(Intels) to remit an outstanding $48 million into the government's Treasury
Single Account (TSA).
The ultimatum may not be
unconnected with boat pilotage agreement between both parties which the Authority
is not happy with.
Speaking during an
interview with CNBC Africa, the Managing Director of NPA, Ms. Hadiza Bala
Usman, said Intels’ notice of termination would stand if the company fails to
settle its debt.
“I am giving Intels a possible
two-week window to provide payment, two weeks from now, following which the
notice of termination will not be withdrawn,” she said.
“One of the issues we have had
with Intels is their non-compliance with the TSA. As you are aware, the
Nigerian government instituted the treasury single account which is the account
that all revenues of government need to be paid into.
“Intels collects revenue on
behalf of the Nigeria Ports Authority and had refused to comply with TSA and
kept retaining those revenues in their coffers.
“So we insisted that they must
comply, no company is above the laws of the country and we went through the
whole process,” she was quoted to have said in the interview.
She spoke further on what
caused the disagreement between the maritime agency and the logistics firm, accusing
the company of failing to comply with the ground rules.
“I think it’s important for all
entities operating in an environment to adhere to the rules and regulations,”
she said.
“What we seek to ensure is with
you have a level playing field and you must comply to regulations. At no point
was Nigeria Ports Authority not going to remit their own portion of the
revenues.
“All other third-party
agreements that we have in the Nigerian Ports Authority have a similar
structure, so why should Intels feel it can operate outside of the law? The
other companies are complying, why don’t you comply?”
In September, the Attorney
General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, had asked
the NPA to void the boats’ pilotage agreement it had with Intels.
Malami said the agreement,
which allowed Intels to receive revenue on behalf of NPA for 17 years, violates
Sections 80(1) and 162(1) and (10) of the constitution.
The AGF wondered if the
management of the NPA and Intels did not take cognisance of the relevant
provisions when negotiating the agreement in 2010.
However, Intels last year
insisted that it had settled the dispute with NPA and was awaiting the AGF’s
clearance.
The firm admitted the
infractions and apologised for its initial rejection of the regulator’s
directive on the TSA, stating its readiness to comply.
In its apology, dated October
25, 2017, Intels, through one of its directors, Silvano Bellinato, suggested
that an agreement that would ensure “mutual business satisfaction” be signed
between the company and NPA.
No comments:
Post a Comment