FG Loses $100M in One Year over NPA, INTELS Pilotage Contract Stalemate

Eromosele Abiodun

One year after the expiration of the boat service pilotage contract between the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and Integrated Logistics Services (INTELS) Limited in August 2020, steps to re-award the contract have stagnated with the implication that the federal government may have lost a whopping $100 million (N41.11 billion) in the last twelve months.

This loss of revenue is a curious development given the financial pressures on the federal government, which has led to a growing debt burden that has become a source of concern to Nigerians.

THISDAY learnt that the NPA does not currently have the capacity to carry out the service. With INTELS not being able to continue with the job following the expiration of its contract and the dispute arising from NPA’s attempt to re-award the contract following a bidding process, Nigeria is losing the much-needed revenue in foreign currency.

INTELS, it was learnt, is supposed to remit same to the federal government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) as collected. But since August last year when the contract with INTELS finally came to an end after fourteen years, nothing has been going on as regards the boat service contract.
Documents seen by THISDAY indicate that the NPA had in December 2019, initiated a public tender process in compliance with the Public Procurement Act.

This, according to sources was in anticipation of the expiration of the contract in August 2020 and the appointment of a contractor to provide the service for which INTELS levied the NPA a whopping 28 per cent service charge.
According to the documents, INTELS, alongside other companies, submitted bids to qualify for the tender in line with the criteria spelt out in the public advert.
INTELS, it was learnt, was however disqualified for violating one of the criteria advertised for the tender process.

Regardless, THISDAY learnt that submissions, which included the names of pre-qualified companies from the tender process were made by the agency to the Federal Ministry of Transportation for onward transmission to the Federal Executive Council for consideration, but these have remained unattended to.
In addition, INTELS had in the aftermath of its disqualification from the public tender process instituted a lawsuit to stop the NPA from proceeding with the process.

However, early this year, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi weighed in on the matter demanding that the restoration of all INTELS related contracts and an amicable settlement of all contentions.
In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari in January 2021, Amaechi requested the restoration of all contracts between NPA and INTELS, which according to him, are now subject to legal disputes between the parties.

The minister also requested the withdrawal of all matters currently in court or at the arbitration by both parties in order to enable him resolve all pending issues “administratively,” a request that was granted by the president on January 22, 2021.
The stalemate however remains to date with the nation losing billions of naira.