How Aviation minister Stella Oduah, FAAN MD squandered $76m BASA Funds

A civil society group, Whistleblowersmonitors says it has uncovered multi-million dollars scams
in the Ministry of Aviation and Federal Aviation
Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) as it alleged that
$76 million Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA)
funds have grown wings and flew away.
The group in an online statement sent to African
Examiner accused Mrs Stella Odua, the
minister of aviation and the Managing Director of
FAAN, Mr. George Uriesi of complicity in the
disappearance of the funds.
According to the group, a petition in respect of the
scam has been submitted to the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for
investigation and prosecution.
"Under the law, the procedure for accessing and
spending from the Bilateral Air Service
Agreement (BASA) fund required that any expenses
from this fund must be budgeted in the
annual budget, appropriated by the National
Assembly and approved by Mr. President.
"Unfortunately, since the resumption of Mrs. Stella
Oduah and Mr. George Uriesi as Minister of
Aviation and Managing Director of FAAN respectively,
this has not been done.
"Today, over $76million and another $13million have
been diverted to various projects without
following due process and the laid down procedures
in the Bureau for Public Procurement Act.
These contracts were neither publicly advertised nor
contained in any of the Federal
Government's Tenders & Procurement bulletins." the
group stressed.
The petition states thus:
"As at 2006, the BASA fund held in
the CBN was
$86,202,875.02 however by 2010 this
amount had
dropped to $76 million. The
unfortunate thing is
that between 2010 and April 2012,
the $76 million
fund had simply vanished. Rather
than apply the
money to verifiable physical projects,
the money is
being shared and used to pay for
unbudgeted
pseudo claims, expenses and
unapproved
projects. For instance in February
2010 or
thereabout $6 million out of the
balance standing
to the credit of the BASA fund was
claimed to have
been used to pay Hydro Air Cargo for
damages to
its aircraft when it landed at the
Murtala
Muhammed International Airport in
November
2003. The real truth however is that
this money
was only taken out using Hydro Air
Cargo as an
excuse for the money to be shared by
the
Managing Director of FAAN and top
officials of the
Ministry of Aviation.
"In order to confirm the veracity of
this petition, the
SFU is urged to investigate into the
following:
1. Why was the claim by Hydro Air
Cargo for the
damage to its aircraft not referred to
FAAN's
insurer by the management of FAAN
for
settlement?
2. Has FAAN not been paying its
insurance
premium to allow it enjoy full
indemnity for the
accident of Hydro Air Cargo?
3. Investigate the insurance premium schedule of
FAAN.
4. Request for all documents relating to the claims
made that $6 million was paid to Hydro Air
Cargo
5. Investigate the account into which the payment
was supposedly paid and to also investigate
the persons directly involved in the transaction. Note
how the $6million was "share" once it
entered into Hydro Air Cargo Account.
DIVERSION OF NEW MONIES AMOUNTING TO
$80MILLION
"Now that the $76million has been diverted and
spent, the Federal Ministry of Aviation has now
devised a new method to further divert and spend all
the current BASA income of over $80
million received from the foreign airlines operating
into Nigeria. For instance the recent
payments by airlines such as Lufthansa, British
Airways, Emirates etc amounted to over $80
million are now being diverted. This alarming
situation of complete depletion of the BASA fund
without any appropriation from the National
Assembly or approval from the Presidency or
Federal Executive Council or Bureau for Public
Procurement is worrisome. We therefore call on
the SFU to avert this dangerous trend from
continuing.