NPA Boss Hadiza Bala Usman
.Three Banks Involved
The new management of the Nigerian Ports Authority has uncovered a N11.23 billion monumental fraud at the agency, Premium Times reports.
Officials who spoke to the newspaper said the Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman, and her executive directors have, since their assumption of duties on July 18, been scrutinizing the books of the maritime agency.
And so far, a series of transactions suspected to be fraudulent and amounting to N11.23billion have been unearthed, PremiumTimes gathered.
The funds were said to be collected by the used banks as revenue for NPA, but that the financial house, acting in concert with some officials of the maritime agency, refused to forward it to NPA’s Treasury Single Account with the Central Bank of Nigeria.
Of the money,$24.1million (N7.47billion at N310 per dollar) was traced to Heritage Bank, the successor bank to the defunct Societe Generale Bank owned by the Saraki family.
“They were hiding the money there, and earning interests,” one official said.
The former management of the agency also failed to disclose the funds in the handover note passed to the Ms. Bala Usman-led team, sources said.
Another six million Euros (N2.09billion at N348 to a dollar) were found concealed in two banks – First Bank of Nigeria and First City Monument Bank.
While $5.4million (N1.67billion at N310 to a dollar) belonging to the NPA was moved to TSA accounts in the CBN different from those belonging to the maritime agency, insiders said.
Sources said Ms. Bala Usman has already contacted Heritage Bank, First Bank and FCMB directing them to release the agency’s funds in their custody.
However, Heritage Bank officials were quoted as saying that releasing the funds could lead to the collapse of their bank.
When contacted by the newspaper, the NPA managing director confirmed that her team had been receiving briefings and going through the books of the agency in the past weeks.
She confirmed that some revenue leakages and hidden funds have been located but refused to provide details because the minister supervising the authority was yet to be briefed.
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