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By Innocent Orok
Dr. Dakuku Peterside, DG NIMASA
The Senate Committee on Marine Transports, chaired by Senator Ahmed Yerima has set up a five -man committee from it’s membership with a mandate to compel the Dr Dakukku Peterside led management of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) to pay the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron it’s statutory 5% revenue allocation outstanding .
Commodore Emmanuel Duja Effedua (rtd), Rector MAN Oron
The decision to tackled NIMASA to release MAN, Oron fund by the Senate Committee was reached after the Rector of the academy Commodore Emmanuel Duja Effedua (rtd) lamented to the Committee during it’s 2019 budget defence, how inconsistent and non accountable manner, NIMASA has been treating the Maritime Academy regarding the release of funds.
Effedua while reviewing the 2018 budget performance which he put at 65%, spending over N7billion and returning over N60million to government coffers as unspent funds for 2018.
Presenting the 2019 budget proposal to the committee ,Effedua said the academy is expecting over N8billion from NIMASA from it’s 5% statutory revenue allocation in 2019. While Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from Short Courses run by the academy is expected to gulped N280million and also MOUKCA fund to bring in N200million , putting a total revenue projection for the academy
in 2019 at over N9billion.
After the presentation, Effedua said “Mr Chairman let me raise a notty issue here,the academy does not know how much NIMASA generates, so we can’t not rally know the amount the are giving to us if is really the 5%.The academy suppose to receive it’s payments quarterly, but we received only three times a year. For the 2019, we have not received any allocation and this is towards the end of the second quarter.We only received the last quarter of 2018 in the first quarter of this year.
Effedua told the committee that NIMASA cannot be owing the academy and be remitting surplus funds to the government. He pleaded with the committee to use their position to talk to NIMASA to release it’s funds to them and as at when due.
Responding, the Chairman of the committee Senator Ahmed Yerima promised that NIMASA will release all their money and set up a five member committee to do so
Since the enactment of the NIMASA Act in 2007 which 5% capacity building fund was allocated to the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, the academy has always find it tasking and difficult to collect the funds from subsequent NIMASA managements.
This scenenerio has often pitch the various NIMASA, DGs at loggerheads with the rectors of the academy.
