N255m cars scandal: National Assembly approved budget before purchase – CIAO

From  Dailypost

A group, Concerned Independent Aviation Observers, CIAO, has argued vehemently that there was budgetary allocation for the two armoured vehicles purchased by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA.

The group had insisted that the budget was approved by the National Assembly.

According to the group, the controversial acquisition of the two armoured vehicles followed all due processes since it was clearly listed in the 2013 Capital Expenditure budget of the NCAA, and subsequently approved by the National Assembly.

The group clarified that Senator Hope Uzodima, Senate Committee on Aviation Chairman, and his other member, Hon. Nkiruka Onyejeocha, appended their signatures on the NCAA’s capital expenditure that, clearly requested for the operational vehicles.

The National Coordinator of CIAO, Dr. Michael Aburime, had in a statement asserted that the National Assembly approved that 25 operational vehicles be acquired at the rate of N240, 000,000. He said that the controversial armoured cars were only two.

Aburime had argued that the armoured vehicle were not for the Aviation Minister, 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 limited funds, the NCAA did adopt lease financing to procure 52 vehicles, as against what obtains in other agencies.

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 be unveiled. “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 further affirmed.