Amaechi orders fresh probe in NIMASA, NPA

Following the high level of rot and corruption in the maritime sector, the minister of Transport, Chief Rotimi Amaechi, has ordered fresh audit of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and other agencies in the Ministry of Transportation.

He made this declaration while receiving the ministerial committee report on NIMASA recently.

“We are in the process of appointing an auditor to audit NIMASA, NPA and other agencies in the Ministry of Transportation. Maybe after the auditor’s work, we would have a clearer picture as to where all the billions went,” he said.

The essence of the audit and the committee that was set up, he said, “is to find out if NIMASA at any point discharged its core responsibilities beyond collection of revenues. And all the revenues NIMASA has been collecting, where did it go?”

“We also set up your committee to reposition NIMASA and make it relevant to grow the economy. I will study the report and call a management meeting of the ministry and take a decision on the way forward,” the minister assured.

Also speaking, the Director General of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside, said for NIMASA to be efficient and operate optimally, the current structure of the agency must be changed.

“We recommend that NIMASA devolves more powers to the zones. We also recommended some drastic changes in the modus operandi of NIMASA. The committee proposed new organogram to NIMASA where more powers will be given to the zones were activities take place instead of having concentration of personnel at NIMASA head offices,” Peterside said.