Against the unfolding drama trailing the purported purchase of two bulletproof cars by the Minister of Aviation, Stella Oduah, the buck may stop at the president desk asto what would eventually be her fate.
The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation, which investigated the matter deferred to the authority of the president in one of its recommendations in a report, available to THISDAY, laid penultimate Wednesday before the plenary of the House.
The report, a copy of which was obtained by THISDAY, which may be considered by the House this week, acquiesced to the authority of President Goodluck Jonathan, whom it stated should take the final decision on the matter.
The report also recommended that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other relevant anti-corruption agencies should probe the discrepancies of the chassis number of the vehicles purportedly delivered and that which was inspected by the committee.
“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should review the continued engagement of the Hon. Minister for Aviation, Ms. Stella Oduah, having contravened the 2013 appropriation and approved revised thresholds by exceeding her approval limit of N100million with the purchase of 54 vehicles valued at N643million,” the report stated.
This recommendation is tangential to the fact that “spending public funds on unbudgeted projects attracts three years in jail and a fine of N100,000 as stipulated by the ICPC Act,” as spelt out on page nine of the report.
It suggested that any party, persons/institutions, involved in the shady deal that was found wanting should be prosecuted.
“Coscharis Nigeria Limited should be investigated on the issue of the waiver, source and exact cost of the two (2) BMW vehicles supplied to NCAA. It should be made to pay the waiver value into the treasury account,” the report recommended, adding that Coscharis’ claim that the Federal Ministry of Finance granted it import duty, VAT, ETLS, CISS and port charges waiver to import two the bulletproof BMW armoured cars was false.”
It also indicted the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) which allegedly purchased the armoured vehicles for the aviation minister has not been remitting its Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to the federation account contrary to Section 177 of Nigeria’s Financial Regulations (2009) Fiscal Responsibility Act on IGR violated by NCAA.
Noting that Oduah committed contempt of parliament by approving the sum in the 2014 budget when it was been presented to the National Assembly, the report also observed that: “The minister’s poor supervisory role led NCAA into unilaterally appropriating funds against next year’s budget.
The above is an indirect contempt of parliament, even-so that the President and Commander-in-Chief has not submitted to the National Assembly 2014 Appropriation Bill.”
“The minister has not addressed why the NCAA paid a price tag that auto dealers in the US and UK described as ‘a rip off.’ It is a fact that each of the BMW cars should cost no more than $167,000 which is approximately N36 million,” the report said.
Stressing that the aviation minister’s approval of N564.665 million to NCAA’s to procure 55 operational vehicles valued has no evidence of approval by the Federal Executive Council (FEC), the report faulted “the attempt to procure now and pay later is against the extant laws of the federation.”
“At the point of procurement, NCAA procured 54 operational vehicles valued at N643.088 million against 55 operational vehicles valued at N564.665 million approved by the Hon. Minister, ” it explained.
It also queried non-submission of the following documents by the minister: copies of advertisements or solicitations for bids published in at least two national newspapers and the website of. NCAA as well as any procurement journal, bids submissions registers and duplicate copies of receipts issued to bidders on submission bids. Other documents not submitted include: minutes of public bidding for technical and financial proposals, including list of CSOs and professional observers, copies of bids evaluation by the sub-technical committees of the Tenders Board, and copies of minutes of meetings of the Tenders Board approving the winning bidder.”
Source: Thisday
