N-Assembly approved NCAA’s budget to

N-Assembly approved NCAA’s budget to
purchase 2 armoured cars, group insists
on october 29, 2013 at 5:00 am in news
LAGOS—A group, 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.