The Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, has been accused of abusing due process and inflating contract figures at her ministry by the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE).
This was part of a petition sent by the labour union to the Senate, dated July 22, 2013 and received by the upper legislative house on 23 July, 2013.
They said that the lack of director of finance and administration in the ministry gave Oduah power to deal directly with the ministry’s funds.
The minister was also accused of failing to adhere to due process in the award of contracts for the upgrade and rehabilitation of the terminal buildings in 11 airports in the country under Phase 1 of the Airport Remodeling Exercise.
In the petition signed by the general secretary of NUATE, Comrade Abdul Kareem Motajo, the union revealed that some companies were allegedly awarded contracts when their names were not among those forwarded to the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) for “No Objection Certificates” under Phase 1 of the remodeling project.
The companies include Trenur Nigeria Ltd, Archvisual Solution Ltd, Mesh Projects Ltd, Paache Construction, ARDC Ltd, and Ogbosite International Ltd.
While alleging that Oduah awarded the contracts in anticipation that “No Objection Certificates” would be got from the BPP, NUATE insinuated that three companies– Messrs Ngonyama Okpanum and Associates, Messrs Design Union Consulting Ltd and Messrs Triad Associates Ltd — were in the last quarter of 2011 awarded contracts for the consultancy works on the upgrade of the airports in the sum of N99, 175,509.17, N60, 986,730.46, and N95, 520,011.93 respectively when the jobs were neither advertised by the Federal Government of Nigeria’s official Tenders’ Journal nor in any national daily.
“The minister however wrote to the BPP requesting for selective tendering for the actual rehabilitation of 11 airports across the country without including request for approval for the consultancy works. She brandished before the Tenders’ Board of the aviation ministry, albeit orally, an approval from the president enabling her to embark on the selective tendering in the award of the projects without producing a documented evidence of the said approval. She cajoled the board into approving the contract without necessary approvals.
“Senate president, sir, we, by this letter plead with you to urge appropriate authorities to prevail on the aviation minister to produce a copy of that approval granted her by Mr. President to embark on Selective Tendering in the award of the remodeling contracts and the consultancy contracts therein,” the union said.
The minister also allegedly got approval for the award of the renovation contracts to the aforementioned companies and, thereafter, substituted them for other companies without writing back to the BPP for a fresh approval, and hence was indicted for contract substitution.
The union appealed: “You may wish to press appropriate authorities to call for the list of the contractors that worked or are currently working at the various airports and crosscheck it with the approval list that was gotten from the BPP.”
The Senate was also urged to compel appropriate authorities to demand a full report for the consultancy work carried out with particular emphasis on the period they started, and when they finished as well as the actual date the construction started in each of the airports.
NUATE, which further stated that the contracts for the actual constructions were awarded before the above-mentioned firms turned in their reports, also wrote in the petition: “The memo awarding the contracts provides that the projects be funded from the sum of N7, 517,177,460.00 only, in 2011 FGN Appropriation and the sum of N7,500,000,000.00 only, which has earlier been approved from BASA funds by Mr President in 2010, as well as the sum of N1,000,000,000.00 from year 2011 FAAN IGR.”
It therefore urged the Senate to order a probe to ascertain what the Presidential Approval granted in 2010, before the present minister came on board, saying what the fund should be used for.
“We understand that government is a continuum, but obtaining presidential approval for a particular purpose and subsequently diverting it into other purposes other than what the approval was granted is criminal. Similarly, we are unsure if the Senate granted the approval for the above stated N1,000,000,000.00 to be used from the 2010 FAAN IGR.”
The minister, the petition said, also duplicated contracts in the Phase 2 of the remodeling exercise. “For example, Zakhem Construction Nigeria Ltd was awarded the contract for the upgrade of MMIA Lagos in the 1st phase at the sum of N920,191,147.58. It is curious to still find out that the same company was thereafter awarded another contract in the tune of N981,900,303.45 for the upgrade and rehabilitation of MMIA Lagos under the banner of the so-called Phase 2.”
Oduah was also accused of ignoring the report of a committee set up by the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) which clearly underlined that the companies handling the Phase 1 aspect of the projects did not have the capacity to embark on the Phase 2 segment.
The contractors were said to be implementing Phase 1 of the remodeling project almost seven months after the respective awards without any comprehensive status report on the projects to enable the ministry to ascertain the capabilities of the contractors to handle more projects, but Oduah went ahead to award the Phase 2 jobs to the same firms by bandying the approval of No Objection she got in Phase 1.
It was further revealed that most of the bids by interested companies for the upgrades in both Phase 1 and Phase 2 had no evidence that they were prepared by any of the ministry’s appointed consultants.
The attention of the Senate was also drawn to another airport security contract which Oduah awarded to a company, I- SEC Security, in the sum of N9.5 billion with full payment allegedly made at once through a First Bank account. The company, NUATE emphasised, has less than one year of incorporation and without any track record of performance in a volatile, delicate and sensitive sector like security especially in the aviation industry and has not only failed to meet with a the 60-day deadline agreement for the installation of security gadgets at the 22 airports across the country, but has also fallen short on delivery as no single equipment could be found on ground.
“It is imperative to embark at once on an on-the-spot assessment of the airports to see where these security gadgets were installed. This is expedient bearing in mind that the company was given 60 days’ completion period. Question should now be raised as to why the ministry released full payment to this company for the installation of these gadgets in 22 airports when the airports are still under construction…the company had by far exceeded the 60 days ‘ completion period, with full payment made, without a single equipment on ground,” the petition noted.
A third company involved in the security tripartite management, Trenur Nig Ltd (already involved in the renovation of Calabar Airport), was alleged to have a questionable security background with little or no cognate experience and was only being used by Oduah as a vehicle to move money out.
The petition therefore called on the Senate to conduct a thorough investigation on the matter as Trenur’s role in the agreement/project was vague especially as it duplicates the functions of I-SEC Security Limited.
But Joe Obi, spokesman for the aviation minister, while responding to the allegations said the ministry was not aware of any such petition before the Senate.
He said: “First, we have to state that we are neither aware of, nor in possession of the said petition to the Senate. As a result, we are not adequately briefed on the issues raised and the context in which they were raised. It is rather perplexing that a petition can be written, according to you, to the Senate as an institution.
“The norm is for such petitions to be addressed to a Committee of the Senate! Be that as it may, we have no hesitation whatsoever in answering your queries.
“It is completely false, and even misleading to declare that the FAAN has no director of finance and administration, hence the minister assumed his duties! Even though we are constrained to clarify that there is no position in the Federal Civil Service as director of finance and administration, we make haste to add that what obtains is director of finance and accounts (DFA).
“Now to your question, contrary to the false allegation, the ministry does in fact have a director of finance and accounts (DFA) in the person of Mr Peter Momodu.
“All companies that have handled/still handling contracts in the Aviation Ministry under the Remodeling Programme followed all due process prescribed by law and ‘No Objection Certificates’ to award contract were duly obtained from the BPP for all such contracts.”
On the substitution of contractors, Obi said: “This allegation is false. All companies handling the remodeling contracts are the ones that duly won the bid to execute the contracts. There is no question of substitution of contractors whatsoever.”
On the duplication of contracts, he said: “This charge is also patently false and improbable under any circumstances in the aviation ministry. There is no duplication of contracts whatsoever. The contracts under the remodeling programme fall into two phases, phases 1 and 2; so it is inconceivable for anyone to contemplate any form of duplication whatsoever. It is untrue.”
Also commenting on the award of contracts to firms without good pedigree, Obi said: “All companies handling contracts under the aviation ministry fulfilled all necessary requirements to effectively execute the projects. Specifically, all companies handling our security and security-related contracts have the technical capability to execute the projects.”
NUATE leader Comrade Abdul Kareem Motajo, in a telephone discussion, confirmed to LEADERSHIP that the inion wrote the petition to the Senate because they wanted to see that the right things were done in the sector.
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