Hadiza Bala-Usman, a former managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority, has refuted the claim made by Rotimi Amaechi, a former minister of transportation, that she gave a contract valued at N2.8 billion while she was in government.
During a Thursday event in Lagos, the former minister accused the former head of the NPA of leaving out the offenses that resulted in her dismissal from the position in her book, “Stepping on Toes: My Odyssey at the Nigerian Ports Authority.”
Amaechi claimed that Bala-Usman, the managing director of NPA with a N2.5 million approval cap, approved a N2.8 billion contract because there were too many lies in the book.
But in a signed statement dated October 28, Bala-Usman, the President’s Special Advisor on Policy Coordination, questioned where Amaechi refuted the minister’s claim.
She said that the accusation was not included in the list of offenses that she received in response to a question from the Amaechi-instituted Panel of Inquiry.
A portion of the statement said, “Mr. Amaechi claimed in his tirade that I gave a contract worth N2.8 billion. That is untrue. This claim was not included in the list of infractions that the former minister sent me in response to a question about the findings of the Administrative Panel of Inquiry he established, so I’m not sure where he obtained the N2.8 billion figure from.
She pointed out that the only matter pertaining to a contract award in the inquiry was the emergency acquisition of functioning cars in the wake of the NPA’s October 21, 2020, vandalism of its Marina, Lagos offices.
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In response to the question, the former head of the NPA declared she never violated the Procurement Act.
“In response to your question regarding the N1.2 billion expenditure, I explained that we made the procurement under the provisions of Sections 43 (1) (a), (2), (3), and (4) of the Public Procurement Act, 2007 (PPA), which permits procuring entities to purchase items due to an emergency and obtain the necessary approval upon completion of the procurement,” the speaker stated.The book’s pages 166–171 contain a thorough account of the answer to the question, including the authorization that was granted and the purported increase of the car prices.
Regarding the claims about the waivers given to certain people while she was in charge, she claimed the question and her response supporting it were in the book.
“The former minister also discussed waivers, which the FMOT’s inquiry addressed in Item F,” the speaker continues. Pages 171–175 of the book contain the query and my answer outlining the facts and rationale for each waiver that the NPA administration has granted.
“He misrepresented the information in Query C, which claimed that a supplemental agreement concerning the Lekki Deep Sea Port Concession Project, which was published on pages 163-165 of the book, had been executed unilaterally.”
The former head of the NPA added that she was not aware of the ten counts Amaechi alleged the tribunal had found her guilty on.
She questioned whether the non-remittance of N165 billion to the Consolidated Revenue Fund was included in the figures.
I have not received any such indictments, thus I am unaware of these 10 counts. However, may I ask him if these counts encompass the purported non-remittance of N165 billion in operating surpluses to the Consolidated Revenue Fund, for which he applied for and received permission from former President Muhammadu Buhari to look into the NPA’s accounts and my “resignation from office”?
“”Is it not true that this serious accusation was not mentioned in the inquiry I got from the ministry following the panel’s work?” she questioned.
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