A group known
as Concerned
Independent Aviation Observers, CIAO, has said that there was budgetary
allocation for the purchase of two armoured vehicles by the Nigerian Civil
Aviation Authority, NCAA, which was approved by the National Assembly.
According to the group, the purchase of the controversial cars, which is now
a subject of the administrative panel of enquiry by the Federal Government,
followed due process as it was captured in the 2013 Capital Expenditure
budget of the NCAA approved by the National Assembly.
The group said the Chairman, Senate Committee on Aviation, Senator Hope
Uzodima, and his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Hon. Nkiruka
Onyejeocha, signed the NCAA’s capital expenditure, which contained the
request for the Operational Vehicles.
The National Coordinator of CIAO, Dr. Michael Aburime, in a statement
explained that the National Assembly approved the purchase of 25
operational vehicles for N240,000,000, out of which the controversial
armoured cars are only two.
Aburime said the armoured cars are not for the Aviation Minister par se, but
for the “operational and safety/security needs of NCAA, especially for
hosting international regulatory aviation officers on official visits to Nigeria.”
He also said that due to paucity of funds, the NCAA did not engage in
outright purchase of the vehicles like other government agencies but
adopted lease financing to procure 52 vehicles.
According to him, “the lease financing in the NCAA was financed by First
Bank Plc at monthly payment of N23,249,181. And for the 2013 expenditure,
about N116,245, 905 would be paid. From the brief detail above, it becomes
obvious that the NCAA did not actually pay such bogus amount of money
being alleged and bandied about in public discourse by uninformed people.
“In fact, the transaction NCAA entered into is N123,754,095 less than the
approved amount, as contained in ‘NCAA Capital Expenditure for 2013’.” He
argued that rather than being vilified, the NCAA should be commended for
demonstrating understanding of project financing and management.
“It is standard practice for public agencies like NCAA to purchase operational
and administrative vehicles. So, what the NCAA did is not something
exceptional. All public agencies do purchase operational vehicles and NCAA
has only done the statutory thing by following due process in getting the
National Assembly approval and making the process transparent by
spreading the payments over time through lease financing.”
Aburime said the lesson from the purported purchase scandal is for the
whole truth to come to the public glare. “We do not see any act of
impropriety in the NCAA car purchase that should warrant the volley of
indignation and vituperations that have erupted in the public space. NCAA is
also an important member of various global aviation associations whose
members do visit Nigeria periodically to verify and approve our civil aviation
standards,” he added.
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