ABUJA – The House of Representatives Committee on Maritime Safety, Education and Administration yesterday expressed there displeasure over the N3 billion already spent on the proposed Maritime University Okerenkoko by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA without physical projects to show for it.
Hon. Lynda Chuba Ikpeazu who Chair the Committee with other committee members have raised a lot of questions to the Director-General of NIMASA Dr. Dakuku Peteeside during the defence of the agency’s 2019 budget.
In her open remark, Hon. Ikpeazu harped on the need for a good working relationship with the agency however raised a lot of questions on the line items of the agency’s 2019 budget with other lawmakers.
Ikpeazu had earlier directed that the DG stand down the 2020 budget submitted by the agency because most committee members do not ‘ve the document handy.
However, she and other lawmakers had queried why the agency had spent a whopping N3 billion naira on the proposed Maritime University of Nigeria Okerenkoko without some identifiable physical structures to show for it.
They also raised a lot of other questions on the other line items of the budget particularly N300 million earmarked for office cleaning as well as N300 million for insurance coverage for floating dock among others.
They further queued the N100 million earmarked in the budget for outsourcing and other amounts penciled down as allowances for official vehicles.
In his response, Director-General of the agency Dr. Dakuku Peterside told the Committee members that the N3 billion was for the smooth take off of the maritime university.
“I gave approval for the payment of N500 million in five tranches into the coffers of the university and added that the last N500 million is still undergoing approval processes”.
He also said that the agency had overshot its revenue target for the year under review as it had paid N16 billion into the coffers of the federal government despite a revenue target of N12 billion it had projected.
He also hinted that the agency had commenced effective monitoring of vehicles from the sea and added that they have automated most of their processes for revenue collection.
