By Amin Kef (Ranger)
According to information in the purview of this news medium, the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources is currently struggling to adequately and convincingly account for registration and licensing fees paid by Fishing Companies for fishing vessels for the year, 2021, amounting to Le1,324,208,393. .
Cognizance must be taken of the fact that in accordance with provisions in Section 17 of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Regulations of 2019, license or authorization shall not be issued unless the approved fee and other required charges have been paid at the required time.
Worthy of note is that when licensing vessel(s) or fishery support & processing plant(s), fishing companies are required to pay a fishing protection fee, fishing statistics and research fee, and fishing observers fee where applicable.
Lamentably though, records for registered vessels (for Industrial Fishing Licenses, Semi-industrial Fishing Licenses, and Fishery Support and Processing Licenses) for the period under review,2021, show no evidence of payment of fishing protection fee, fishing statistics and research fee, and fishing observers fee which amounted to Le1,324,208,393.
When the Director of Fisheries was asked to immediately submit evidence of payment of revenue to auditors who were verifying or otherwise the full amount must be recovered from the fishing companies and paid into the Consolidated Fund, he responded that there is evidence of the aforementioned payments made.
He categorically stated that records of payment of Fisheries Protection, Research, Statistics and Observer fees had been compiled by the account office and ready for verification by the audit team.
“We had challenge with one fishing company – Annsenkal Fishing Company operating Tuna Vessels who was constrained to honor payment of Fisheries Protection and Research fees since Tuna Vessels mostly operate on the high seas,” he furthered adding that the Ministry had sent a reminder to the company (Annsenkal Fishing Company) to honour payment of the said fees in order to mitigate a situation of serving as a deterrent to subsequent licensing of the vessels.
He added that the company’s Management responded that the company experienced shock due to COVID-19 pandemic that led to the withdrawal of some vessels and the non-inclusion of fees for fisheries protection and research into the MoU disclosing how they promised to include that component into the subsequent yearly MoU.
However, he failed to mention why fees collected from other fishing vessels were not accounted which gives an hint that something fishy has taken place somewhere which is why transparency and accountability are not seen at play with regards the aforementioned fees.
Besides, considering the fact that we are talking of 2021, there is no convincing reason to justify why up to this moment there are no evidence of fees been paid by fishing vessels.
Notwithstanding the Director’s cover up story or account, the auditors are of the strong conviction that the Ministry breached the provisions in Section 17, Subsection (2a) of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Regulations 2019 and Section 13, Subsection (2b&h) of the PFMA of 2016 and therefore, the issue is still to be addressed.
Investigation into the issue continues…
