NPA: Hadiza Usman Accused of Circumventing Transport Ministry on Dredging Equipment, Others, Preferred Direct Dealing with Presidency
*How 2018 audit report raised dust in NPA
By Onyinye Apeh
Flagrant disregard for the supervisory Transport Ministry and established Due Process for direct dealing with the Presidency in most major businesses of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by the suspended Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, was among the many allegations being leveled against her.
Sources close to the Ministry of Transport said Hadiza Usman allegedly threw administrative process to the wind and sought approvals directly from the Presidency instead of going through the Board and the Transport Ministry.
It was revealed for instance that while the Board of the NPA agreed in November 2019 during a meeting that it was better for the NPA to acquire its own dredgers for the channels as was the case before, Hadiza failed to implement the decision.
The idea according to the Board was that in two or so years , both equipment and manpower , including the requisite technical skill, would have been acquired.
According to the source, it was for this failure to obey the decision of the Board that made the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi in February 2021 to send a memo to her directing that an arrangement should be made for the acquisition of dredging equipment.
However, unknown to the Minister, Hadiza was allegedly pursuing to procure approval for the award of the contract directly from the presidency.
According to the source, this had annoyed the Ministry whose Minister, Rotimi Amaechi and his Minister of State, Senator Gbemisola Saraki and officials felt that such practice was completely far from the established Due Process of the federal government.
The source also revealed that , “many people have also dabbled into the so-called INTELS contract without understanding the underlying tone there of”.
The suspended NPA boss was said to have defied a directive from the federal government through the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) that no new non-urgent contracts should be awarded.
But she allegedly insisted on awarding a fresh contract by scaling the Ministry to the BPP and when it failed, she decided to lobby the Presidency for approval.
This was when a bid process was conducted which found the existing contractor (INTELS) wanting leading to the award of the contract to the company of an influential billionaire.
The source added that on awarding the contract, it was the NPA staff that were used to execute the job even with the claim that the authority does not have the requisite skill set and manpower to do the job.
The source disclosed that the same company has been enjoying millions of dollars waivers from the NPA.
The company was said to have been granted an unfair edge over and above other competitors as “terminals and platforms are arbitrarily cancelled and awarded” in its favour, the source alleged.
According to the source, the company is owing the federal government about $38million.
Among the anger of the Ministry was that the NPA which is seen as a big organization with an annual budget of N400bn was in most cases poorly represented in inter-parastatal board meetings of the ministry.
Hadiza was said to have kept sending a junior manager to represent NPA and refused to attend herself.
“It was not until a new Perm Sec, Dr Mrs Magdalene Ajani, replaced the former PS who retired, refused to attend to NPA memos and budgets, unless Hadiza Usman attended the meetings by herself, did she start attending the meetings”, the source alleged.
The source further added, “in pursuit of the belief in her connection with the powers that be, she bye-passed the MOT and headed straight to the Presidency, enroute the Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari to procure a second term, without the recommendation and approval of the MOT, as the Public Service ACT prescribes. Being haughty and toxic are two behavioural toxins that limit the height a person can attain.
“Those vaunting and condemning the suspension should not forget that the same powers that caused the suspension were the same power that brought forth HBU in the first place and allowed her run the show for over six years. They must not forget that the technology that produced the pencil is the same technology that produced the eraser”.
It was also gathered that the initial audit report of the NPA in 2018 was allegedly damning on the integrity of the agency that it had to be withdrawn.
The Ministry source said the Auditor General’s Office had described the NPA books as “riddled with sundry accounting deficiencies, irregularities and errors”, adding that it was a clear case of “gross betrayal of public trust”.
The Auditor General’s Office was angry that NPA was in the habit of flagrantly by-passing official Due Process in most transactions.
“ For months, everybody was searching for the 2018 audited reports, right from the office of the Auditor General through the National Assembly to even the NPA itself. It vanished! And when it eventually resurfaced, it had been thoroughly cleaned up, re-worked and deodorized. Where is the original 2018 audit report???There were queries on excessive and constantly increasing administrative cost including excessive cost on hotel accommodation, under-disclosure of expenditure on hotel expenses”, the source alleged.
Efforts to reach Hadiza for her response to some of the allegations as at the time of filing this report failed.
By Onyinye Apeh
Flagrant disregard for the supervisory Transport Ministry and established Due Process for direct dealing with the Presidency in most major businesses of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) by the suspended Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, was among the many allegations being leveled against her.
Sources close to the Ministry of Transport said Hadiza Usman allegedly threw administrative process to the wind and sought approvals directly from the Presidency instead of going through the Board and the Transport Ministry.
It was revealed for instance that while the Board of the NPA agreed in November 2019 during a meeting that it was better for the NPA to acquire its own dredgers for the channels as was the case before, Hadiza failed to implement the decision.
The idea according to the Board was that in two or so years , both equipment and manpower , including the requisite technical skill, would have been acquired.
According to the source, it was for this failure to obey the decision of the Board that made the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi in February 2021 to send a memo to her directing that an arrangement should be made for the acquisition of dredging equipment.
However, unknown to the Minister, Hadiza was allegedly pursuing to procure approval for the award of the contract directly from the presidency.
According to the source, this had annoyed the Ministry whose Minister, Rotimi Amaechi and his Minister of State, Senator Gbemisola Saraki and officials felt that such practice was completely far from the established Due Process of the federal government.
The source also revealed that , “many people have also dabbled into the so-called INTELS contract without understanding the underlying tone there of”.
The suspended NPA boss was said to have defied a directive from the federal government through the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) that no new non-urgent contracts should be awarded.
But she allegedly insisted on awarding a fresh contract by scaling the Ministry to the BPP and when it failed, she decided to lobby the Presidency for approval.
This was when a bid process was conducted which found the existing contractor (INTELS) wanting leading to the award of the contract to the company of an influential billionaire.
The source added that on awarding the contract, it was the NPA staff that were used to execute the job even with the claim that the authority does not have the requisite skill set and manpower to do the job.
The source disclosed that the same company has been enjoying millions of dollars waivers from the NPA.
The company was said to have been granted an unfair edge over and above other competitors as “terminals and platforms are arbitrarily cancelled and awarded” in its favour, the source alleged.
According to the source, the company is owing the federal government about $38million.
Among the anger of the Ministry was that the NPA which is seen as a big organization with an annual budget of N400bn was in most cases poorly represented in inter-parastatal board meetings of the ministry.
Hadiza was said to have kept sending a junior manager to represent NPA and refused to attend herself.
“It was not until a new Perm Sec, Dr Mrs Magdalene Ajani, replaced the former PS who retired, refused to attend to NPA memos and budgets, unless Hadiza Usman attended the meetings by herself, did she start attending the meetings”, the source alleged.
The source further added, “in pursuit of the belief in her connection with the powers that be, she bye-passed the MOT and headed straight to the Presidency, enroute the Chief of Staff, Ibrahim Gambari to procure a second term, without the recommendation and approval of the MOT, as the Public Service ACT prescribes. Being haughty and toxic are two behavioural toxins that limit the height a person can attain.
“Those vaunting and condemning the suspension should not forget that the same powers that caused the suspension were the same power that brought forth HBU in the first place and allowed her run the show for over six years. They must not forget that the technology that produced the pencil is the same technology that produced the eraser”.
It was also gathered that the initial audit report of the NPA in 2018 was allegedly damning on the integrity of the agency that it had to be withdrawn.
The Ministry source said the Auditor General’s Office had described the NPA books as “riddled with sundry accounting deficiencies, irregularities and errors”, adding that it was a clear case of “gross betrayal of public trust”.
The Auditor General’s Office was angry that NPA was in the habit of flagrantly by-passing official Due Process in most transactions.
“ For months, everybody was searching for the 2018 audited reports, right from the office of the Auditor General through the National Assembly to even the NPA itself. It vanished! And when it eventually resurfaced, it had been thoroughly cleaned up, re-worked and deodorized. Where is the original 2018 audit report???There were queries on excessive and constantly increasing administrative cost including excessive cost on hotel accommodation, under-disclosure of expenditure on hotel expenses”, the source alleged.
Efforts to reach Hadiza for her response to some of the allegations as at the time of filing this report failed.
FOLLOW US
About Post Author
