THE controversial procurement of two BMW 760 armoured cars for the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) yesterday became more controversial when it was gathered that the procurement was done on credit.
Information gathered by the Nigerian Tribune indicated that apart from the fact that the cars were bought on credit, First Bank of Nigeria Plc was said to have stood in as a guarantor for the agency with Coscharis Motors Limited.
According to stakeholders, the issue became more confusing when the affected agency, NCAA is presently struggling to pay workers’ salaries and send inspectors and other key officers out for important trainings.
Some of the agency’s personnel who are currently in training in Manchester, United Kingdom embarked on the training with their own funds while the present Director-General, NCAA, Captain Fola Akinkuotu presently spends his personal funds for most of the travels he does.
The letter to Coscharis Motors Limited reads in part, “Sequel to your Perfoma Invoices dated 25th June, 2013, you are hereby required to deliver the 2No BMW760 Armoured Vehicles in line with your invoices to Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Ikeja with effect from tomorrow at a cost of N127, 575,000 each amounting to a total sum of N255,150,000.
“Please note that each of the vehicles should be delivered with appropriate spare keys as well as the following document bearing FIRST BANK OF NIGERIA PLC/NIGERIAN CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY: Sales invoices, Delivery notes and Attestation document.”
The union leaders in the sector are, however, calling for a detailed investigations on the development and other issues relating to awards of contracts.
In a letter to the presidency, one group called the ‘Patriot’ alleged that Oduah collects monthly the sum of N158,000 each from the accounts of aviation agencies like the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), NCAA, FAAN and other agencies under her.
In the memo to the presidency, the Patriot alleged that the deductions have successfully crippled the operations of the agencies concerned to the extent that paying staff entitlements have recently become a herculean task.
Oduah was also purported to have a stake in Price Water Coopers, PWC, which audited various aspects of the four agencies at N250m each.
The memo reads in part; “Price Waters Coopers, PWC, has audited various aspects of four agencies under the Ministry’s financial operations for at least four times. As we speak PWC staff, young boys and girls who have hardly graduated from university are on ground at the parastatals offices since January this year to date looking for God knows what.
“The Minister usually fixes the audit fee to be paid by the aviation agencies to PWC for these phony consultancy audits at about N250m each, totalling a whopping sum of N1bn on each occasion for FAAN, NCAA, NAMA and AIB.
“Sequel to our investigations, we have discovered that just recently, World Bank cancelled a long existing training grant to the NCAA because of the minister’s illegal over-bearing influence on the agency. Usually, the World Bank only provide funds for the training, but also conducts the training itself. It’s shocking that Madam Minister in her bid to scoop every available kobo from the ministry and its agencies she directed the World Bank to monitise it and put the funds under her supervision.”
The Secretary General of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Comrade Abdulkareem Motajo said that what is happening in the sector now is not novel to the unions.
According to him, the NUATE had at several times in the past written petitions to the presidency, National Assembly and other agencies without any action taken by the government.
He insisted that Oduah should not be removed, but be probed by the security agencies in the country, alleging that the industry had been ran aground by the minister.
His words:“What is happening is part of what we have been saying in recent time. What is going on today is unprecedented. A lot of things are happening. Somebody was talking about the diversion of N19.5bn intervention fund and somehow today, the security agencies are looking into that and the money has been traced somewhere.
“But who is investigating the particular one that is happening now? Nobody. My union has written a petition to the Senate President, Deputy Senate President, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation over some of the ills happening in the sector till date and not even an acknowledgement was given and if this thing continues like this, you can rest assured that the sector is not safe and the industry is going to be looted continuously like this.
“As we speak, none of the six parastatals have been able to send their staff for training and others. They owe months of such allowances and leave allowances have not been paid to staff. They are just going from hand to mouth to pay salaries. The minister is taking over N150m per month from each of the CEOs and on what grounds we don’t understand.
“Was the money used to buy the vehicles part of the budget? Did they take Federal Executive Council approval? We don’t know about this. Not event the National assembly can question her. The minister as a maiguard has suddenly become maigida. She was appointed and not elected by the people of Nigeria, but she has become more powerful than the elected.
“The record has it that the FAAN alone bought over 200 cars recently and we know some of these cars were given to general managers and directors, but the fact is that how many directors and managers do they have in the agency? We know those who were given in the industry and the rest were given to those that are unknown to the industry.
Attempts made to get reactions from the various media personnel across the aviation agencies could not yield as they refused to pick their calls.
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