The lawmakers were reacting to the
presentations made by government agencies during its investigative hearing on
breach of public trust by the National Emergency Management Agency on
Wednesday.
While making a presentation before
the committee, representative of the Comptroller General of Nigeria Customs
Service, Assistant Comptroller General Ekekezie Kaycee (T and T), said three
batches of the Chinese rice donation arrived at the Nigerian port on the 9th of
May, the second, 15th +August, and the last, 11th September 2017 respectively.
She added that the value of the
rice, which came in 151 containers in total, as stated on the bill of lading
are as follows: 7, 405, 222 Yuan, 9, 219, 650 million Yuan and 11, 247, 973
Yuan, at an exchange rate of 46.2450 Naira to one Yuan.
Altogether, she informed the
committee, 3, 779 metric tonnes of the rice have been cleared, leaving a
balance of 3000 metric tonnes. She identified the two companies that did the
clearing as Global view Nig ltd and Baltic Air and Maritime Services.
Similarly, the representative of the minister of Budget and National
Planning, Mr Iloma Simon, said while making a presentation before the committee
that they procured waivers for the rice from the Ministry of Finance at 3
separate times when the goods arrived at the port. His he National Emergency
Management Agency (NEMA) paid a whopping sum of N400 million in demurrage to
clear rice donated by the Chinese government for distribution to Internally
Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North East which is valued at N414 million, the
Director General of the agency Mustapha Yunusa Maihaja, has said.
Documents submitted to the committee by the ministry of
finance dated July 20, 2017, indicates that the total quantity of the rice is
6,779 metric tonnes valued at N414.8 million while the federal ministry of
agriculture paid another sum of N272.5 million as the duty.
However, the figure of N400 million
excludes the cost of transporting the rice from the ports to the warehouses of
the agency and further revealed that about half of the goods are still at the
ports accumulating more demurrage.
Agriculture ministry counterpart
said, in his own summary, that the ministry paid for the clearing of the rice
and provided warehouses for storage, but is yet to receive any consignment as
at today.
In his submission, the director
general of NEMA, Engr Mustapha Maihaja, said the agency could only start
clearing when it received the bill of lading six months later.
He added that due to the emergency
situation, the agency relied on section 43 of its establishment Act and engaged
Global View Logistics and Baltic Air and Maritime Services without following
due process on procurement. The first clearance was done in January 2018. He
also added that the 110 containers of rice cleared have been taken to Borno and
Yola.
This disclosure enraged the
lawmakers who were angry that the poor handling of the clearance of the rice
led to a cost of N400 million taxpayers’ money on payment for demurrage.
- - Sahara
Reporters
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