Bulletproof cars: Oduah, NCAA bosses risk five years in jail

The House Committee on Public Procurement investigating the alleged purchase of N255 million bullet proof cars for the Minister of Aviation, Ms Stella Oduah by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) said in Abuja yesterday that Oduah and officials of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority risked five years in jail if found guilty of breaching procurement procedures in the procurement of the bullet-proof cars.

The committee Chairman, Ms Jumoke Okoya-Thomas, who accused the minister of shunning 12 invitations previously extended to her by the committee, explained that  the Public Procurement Act clearly spelt out the penalty for any breach.

Section 58 (5) of the Act states, 'Any persons, who, while carrying out his duties as an officer of the Bureau or any procuring entity who contravenes any provision of this Act, commits an offence and is liable to a conviction of cumulative punishment of (a) a term of imprisonment of not less than five calendar years without any option of fines and (b) summary dismissal from government services.

Okoya-Thomas dismissed the explanation by the NCAA that the cars were procured through a lease agreement and pointed out that no government official or agency could claim to be ignorant of the provisions of the Act.

According to her, what is important is that since  public money was involved, its spending  must  follow  legal procedure.

She added, 'Argument about lease purchase does not hold  as long as they are going to pay with public funds and to say that  the NCAA is within the threshold makes it look like splitting the budget, which is another case on its own under the Procurement law.

'Our committee has the responsibility to oversight BPP and since the core objective of public procurement is to ascertain value for money, we have been having issues with the Ministry of Aviation and agencies under it for sometime now.

'It may interest you to know that we have issued out not less than 12 invitations to the Minister of Aviation, but she has not deemed it fit to respond even for once.

'She has always been giving us one excuse or the other.  Apart from  the fact that there are issues on the rehabilitation of airports around the country over issues of value for money, which Nigerians are not getting, if she had taken her time to honour our invitation, maybe she would  have been able to avoid this issue of threshold.

'What these heads of agencies don't realise is that when we send out letters like that, it is not   to intimidate   them but to rub minds and enlighten them on the nitty-gritty of the provisions of procurement laws.

'If she had been honouring our invitations, by now a lot of things would have been known to her and she would not have  found  herself in this situation.'

Earlier on Monday, the    House Committee on Aviation said the minister would no longer appear before it on Tuesday (today) as earlier scheduled.

The committee , headed by Mrs. Nkiruka Onyejeocha,  abruptly put off the hearing through a statement on Monday, claiming that it was to give all the stakeholders the opportunity to prepare their documents.

The panel had adjourned hearing on Thursday last week till today.

The new twist is  different from the tough stance the committee took on Thursday when Onyejeocha ruled that 'the minister must appear unfailingly on Tuesday;  wether she is in Nigeria or not.'

However, findings indicated that the committee came under pressure to postpone the hearing after Oduah reportedly made 'a passionate appeal' to be allowed to appear on Wednesday.

She was said to have explained that she was still in Israel where   she had gone to   sign  the BASA  with Israel.

The committee, through its Clerk, Mr. Abubakar Chana, said the postponement was to give all stakeholders the opportunity to put their documents in order and make detailed presentations.

Part of the statement reads, 'This is to notify all stakeholders and the general public that the Public Hearing of the House Committee on Aviation on the purchase of two BMW cars by the NCAA earlier slated for Tuesday, October 29,  2013 has been postponed to Wednesday,  October 30,  2013.

'This is to allow ample time for the invited agencies to put their documents together…'

The  committee wrote a separate letter to Oduah on Monday, which confirmed that the postponement of the hearing was to give her some grace.

The letter indicated that the committee received a letter from the minister on Monday explaining why she was unable to attend the hearing.

The committee complained that her non-appearance was delaying the investigation, adding that it was forced to reschedule the hearing till Wednesday.

It warned that failure to attend tomorrow' session would leave the committee with no option but 'to enforce the appropriate laws and apply necessary sanctions.'

The letter reads in part, 'I am further directed to inform you that your inability to appear before the committee has become a serious constraint to the committee, as the House of Representatives has mandated the committee to submit its report within one week.

'More so, the committee has been utterly gracious for postponing the hearing to Wednesday,   October 30, 2013.

'It is the directive of the House that you should appear on the rescheduled date.'