Angst over NCAA’s N150m boardroom refurbishment

 

• Purchases 150 units of office chairs at N10m

In a bid to come out of its financial crisis, The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has put in place system to block leakages at the agency. The aviation regulatory body had been in financial crisis leading to its inability to train workers and send inspectors to oversight aircraft.
In the last three years until now, the NCAA had struggled to pay salaries. The issue came to a head during the scandal over the purchase of two bullet proof cars at a whooping N255 million which saw to the sack of a former Minister of Aviation and some chief executive officers of NCAA, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) and the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.
This is coming amid revelation of huge financial misappropriation that took place in the agency between 2013 and 2014. A source close to the Ministry of Aviation told journalists under strict condition of anonymity that the agency under one of its Acting Directors-General (names withheld), refurbished the agency’s boardroom with the sum of N150 million The amount, the ministry source said, was enough to build the agency’s headquarters and wondered why the same amount could be used to refurbish “just a boardroom.”
The source disclosed that the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Aviation, Hajia Binta Bello, had been informed about the ‘fraud’ and currently carrying out investigations to unravel what occurred in the agency in the last two years. The source hinted that when the current Director-General, NCAA, Capt. Muhtar Usman, assumed office about a year ago; he refused to use the office and equally declined to approve the sum for the contractor.
It was not clear who approved the amount. Apart from this, the source disclosed that a portakabin, which was initially taken to Abuja Airport from Lagos was allegedly returned to Lagos at N12 million with due approval from a former acting Director-General. The source alleged that in an attempt to return the portakabin to Lagos, it got damaged and like the previous one, Usman refused to append his signature on the N12 million demanded by the contractor, stressing that acquisition of new portakabin won’t cost the agency a quarter of the contractual amount.
Besides, it was disclosed that the sum of N10 million was equally approved for the purchase of 150 units of office chairs by the former management between 2013 and 2014. In a bid to block all the loopholes, the ministry source told our correspondent that Usman suspended acceptance of Industrial Trainees, ITs, in the regulatory agency, purporting that some of the management staff were using that avenue to siphon money from the system.
The source said: “The intake of ITs was stopped by Usman immediately he resumed in office about a year ago because it was discovered that we have several ghost IT students in the system who have finished their programme, but some people in the system were still using their names to draw out money from the agency.
“This money ran into several millions of naira monthly, which could have collapsed NCAA if it was not suspended. Those still doing IT with us now are those who have been in the system before he resumed. “On resumption also, Usman stopped illegitimate drawings from the Duty-Tour-Allowance, DTA, and now allowed for only mandatory inspectors to embark on trips or inspection outside the country.
All these have helped the system to stabilise.” The source reiterated that within a year, Usman had increased revenue profile of the agency while the regulatory authority was gradually coming back on track. Spokesman NCAA, Mr. Sam Adurogobye, declined to comment.
Culled from NewTelegraph