Ibekimi Oriamaja Reports
The Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) London office has been the target of an investigation by the House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts examining the organization’s financial records.
In addition to previous inquiries by the Office of the Auditor General for the Federation, the Public Accounts Committee is looking into the NPA’s failure to pay accruing money to the Federation Account (OAuGF).
Members of the committee will look at the actions of the Nigerian High Commission in London as they are described in the audit questions from the AuGF.
The Committee’s members, led by its chairman Wole Oke and his deputy Abdullahi Sa’ad Abdulkadir, left the nation in two groups for London on August 17 and 18, according to information obtained by The Nation.
Members of the committee are anticipated to visit some NPA-owned property while in London and look into additional transactions made by the authority.
The following properties will be inspected: 23 Manor House Drive, NW6 7DE, allegedly used as a management guest house; 1A Temple Road, NW2 6PJ, Second Floor, allegedly used as NPA office in the United Kingdom (UK); 49 Peter Avenue, NW10 2DD, allegedly used by NPA employees; 18 Rowdon Avenue, NW10 2AJ; 302 Dollis Hill Lane, NW2 6HH; 61 Dollis Hill Avenue, NW2 6QU; and 1 Temple Road
As additional real estate, there is 67 Dollis Hill Avenue, NW2 6QU; 1 Temple Road, First Flat, NW2 6PJ; 1A Temple Road, Ground Floor, NW2 6PJ; and 1A Temple Road, First Floor, NW2 6PJ, all of which are allegedly unoccupied.
The AuGF said, among other things, that the NPA paid £17,000.00 for a corporate card to be maintained by the GM-overseas Representative to be issued by a bank in the UK but that the GM-overseas Representative was still employed as of the audit in November 2018.
In his report, the AuGF also stated that “audit observed from the records relevant to the income and expenditure of NPA London office that Sea View Properties, UK Limited is a special purpose organization established to manage NPA properties in the UK even though NPA London office oversees the affair of the company.”
