*N6.57bn Paid For Phantom Water Hyacinth Removal

*N4.2bn For Evacuation Of ‘Marine Litters’

*Off-shore Waste Reception Gulped N3.7bn

Investigation by Business and Maritime West Africa (BMWA) have revealed how some National Assembly members and top officials of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) have been looting the apex maritime regulatory agency annually, through massive budget padding, award and payment for bogus contracts.

Among many fraudulent channels the annual heist is perpetrated, removal of water hyacinth, marine liters from Nigeria’s waterways and rivers seems to be one of the preferred options as more than N14 billion was siphoned in three years in the guise of clearing the waterways.

In this first of a series of reports on extensive investigation by BMWA on NIMASA, the evacuation of water hyacinth, establishment of Marine litters action plan implementation and provision of offshore waste reception facilities are in focus.

Using the spectre of oversight functions and the ritual of approving the agency’s annual budget, some members of both chambers of the National Assembly in collaboration with top officials of the agency have perfected the art of inserting the removal of water hyacinth in annual capital expenditure and padding the cost.

Afterwards, without any tender or open competitive bidding, the whole sum is awarded as contract to a company nominated by the lawmakers and their NIMASA partners. Contrary to extant rules, there is no competitive bidding for the contract, the supposed project is not supervised, evaluated or verified before payment is made in full. More importantly, no water hyacinth is removed in any of the numerous rivers routinely listed in the budget.

The racket involves the collaboration of members of the Senate and House of Representatives committees on Marine Transport as well as top officials of NIMASA. Ordinarily, queries would have been raised by officials of the maritime agency over the poorly disguised duplication of rivers and water ways over the three years period the investigations by Business and Maritime West Africa covered.

Our extensive investigation established the pattern for drawing the money from the coffers of the agency.

Between 2018 and 2020, the agency had paid N6.577 billion for combating the weed for which none was evacuated.

Within the same period, NIMASA also awarded contracts for “Marine litters action plan implementation” to the tune of N4.203 billion and N3.7 billion for “provision of offshore waste reception facilities/pollution control/marine waste monitoring vessel at eastern, central and western zones”. All of them also fell under the special arrangement with the National Assembly members to ferret funds from the agency.

Just as the case with water hyacinth, the marine litters and offshore waste reception facilities are phantom projects. They were created to provide a “safe” platform for yearly siphoning of money from NIMASA in a win-win arrangement for both the federal law makers and top officials of the maritime regulatory agency.

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What's new,is that not how Nigeria operates

and someone say they are the poorest in the world........even with their constituency projects funds inlcluded