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Nigeria: BPE - No Money is Missing - DG
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Leadership (Abuja)
9 May 2008
Posted to the web 9 May 2008
Ibrahim Modibbo
Abuja
The director-general of Bureau of Public Enterprises, Mrs. Irene Chigbue, has refuted a story credited to the chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Hon. Njidda Ahmed Gella, to the effect that concession fees for the ports to the tune of $700 million were missing or could not be accounted for.
Briefing LEADERSHIP exclusively in her office, the director-general disclosed that though it is not in her character and professional calling to join issues in public with her esteemed chairman or indeed any member of the National Assembly, it is expedient that she corrects a wrong impression with a view to setting the records straight for posterity.
Mrs. Chigbue, who disclosed that no proceeds of concession are either missing or unaccounted for, reiterated her commitment to probity and accountability in all her dealings as, according to her, "the money is not missing but it is in my drawers."
Making available all the documents from her drawers to support her claim, Mrs. Chigbue said, "It is important to state that indeed, all the 26 concessions are to pay total revenue of $5,026,100,478,454.00 for the 25 years concession period at a net present value (NPV) of $1,679,586,872.59.
"This translates to an average of US$20 million per year. It is therefore not correct and indeed impossible that the BPE would have collected $700 million or N180 billion in less than two years as alleged in the reports."
The director-general revealed that fees collected by BPE from May 2006 to May 2008 amounted to $58,172,689.00 and Nigeria Ports Authority NPA, as stipulated in the concession agreement, has been collecting the annual leases and throughput fees.
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Explaining further, Mrs. Chigbue stated that expenditure on terminal benefit of NPA workers and transaction costs as approved by the national council on privatisation (NCP) and the presidential task force on ports reforms chaired by the vice president and minister of finance respectively, were settled from the proceeds totalling $62 million and N668,081,000.00
She said, "The total amount transferred to NPA was N5,642,516,915.00 and it is therefore clear that neither BPE and NPA collected $700 million in the foregoing two years, as mis-constrained. It is equally not factual that concession fees are missing or cannot be accounted for."
On the legality or otherwise of the concession of the ports by BPE the DG stated that the public enterprises act of 1999 established the national council on privatisation NCP and empowers it to approve policies on privatisation and commercialisation; and the "NCP/BEP relied on the provisions of the NPA Act to carry out the concession of the ports. Similarly, concession is a form of privatisation. It is therefore incorrect to state that the concession of the ports is illegal," she said.
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