Over N5bn CRFFN budget unaccounted for —ANLCA

THE Association of Government Approved Freight Forwarders (ANLCA) has raised the alarm over the whereabouts of over N5 billion that has accrued into the coffers of the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarders in Nigeria (CRFFN) as budgetary allocations since 2011/2012 when the Council’s Governing Board was dissolved.

According to a letter signed by the ANLCA’s President, Olayiwola Shittu over the weekend and addressed to the Minister of Transportation, the association appealed for a halt of the collection of Practitioners Operating Fees (POF).

According to the letter, dated 14th of July, 2017, ANLCA stated that, “We believe election into the Governing Board of CRFFN should be held and the Governing Board inaugurated to determine the fate of the Practitioner’s Operating Fees and resolve some other issues, and not the other way round; because despite the absence of a Governing Board for several years, CRFFN has been receiving budgetary allocations yearly, through the Federal Ministry of Transportation, without recourse to accountability.”

Shedding more light on the reason behind the letter, the Spokesman of ANLCA, Kayode Farinto explained that budgetary allocations to the CRFFN became public when the administration of President Mohammad Buhari came to power.

“In 2016, the CRFFN was given budgetary allocation of about N700million. In 2017, it became about N3billion. All this became known following the transparency policy of the new administration. Before then, under former President Goodluck Jonathan, we were never privileged to know all this.

“The Governing Board of the CRFFN was dissolved in 2011/2012. Ever since then, the Registrar of the Council has been in charge of its affairs. The Council has been collecting budgetary allocations since that period, but nobody knew how much it was nor what it was used for.

“Before 2015, we did not even know how much the Council got, or how it was spent. But when a new government took over power in 2015, subsequent budgets were made public. That was how we got to know that the CRFFN has been collecting budgetary allocations through the Federal Ministry of Transportation all this while. If not for divine intervention, we wouldn’t have known there is a budget for the CRFFN.

“That is why we have written to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi to halt collection of the POF and address other issues like whereabouts of the CRFFN budgetary allocations since 2012.

“The last budget was over N3 billion. The preceding one was N700 million. If the monies are calculated, it should be in excess of N5 billion since 2012. Where is it? What has it been used for?” Farinto stated.