N300Bn Aviation Funds Allegedly Siphoned.

• One beneficiary collected N32bn and left the country –Amaechi

Minister of Transport, Rotimi Amaechi, has said in Abuja yesterday, that over N300 billion earmarked for the aviation sector by the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan was allegedly siphoned.

Amaechi also said the ministry will rather scrap the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), than continue outsourcing its core responsibility.
“Our experience in the aviation industry is that some amounts of money were released by the Federal Government, about N300 billion, about three years ago.
“So, people in the aviation industry collected the money and the money just disappeared. In fact, there is one man who collected N32 billion and left the country,” Amaechi said.
The minister, who briefed Senate Committee on Marine Transport, chaired by Abubakar Kyari said NIMASA was set up basically to provide safety in Nigeria’s territorial waters. He stressed that the agency could not then outsource the core responsibility for which it was set up. Berating the agency for contracting to a private company its core functions, Amaechi said the ministry would rather scrap the agency and engage the contractor directly.
“We have to get NIMASA to get back to its core responsibility. Should NIMASA actually outsource its responsibility? If it does, it has no business being NIMASA; we should just scrap it and allow the ministry to outsource it directly.
“The main reason why it was created by law was for the responsibility that it has even outsourced. So, we need to first address the contract, and, possibly, address NIMASA and all these will come out when we audit NIMASA,” he said.
He said the ministry’s visit to NIMASA only showed that the agency was doing nothing as only three doctors and a stethoscope were found in its search and rescue centre. The minister added that the agency was only just installing the instrument that could be used to locate vessels whenever there is an accident.
“So, what happened to all the money that they have been making yearly, NIMASA makes N63 billion annually; what happened to that money?” he queried rehetorically.
Ameachi, while speaking on the Cabotage Fund expressed displeasure at how it was initially managed and disbursed without any effective machinery for accountability. He decried how about N300 billion which was disbursed by the Federal Government in the aviation sector was merely just wasted and embezzled.
“One of those who took our money is walking on the streets of Nigeria and nothing has happened to him and the airline is dead. He does not even have the courtesy to say that the airline is dead,” he said.
He said the ministry currently has N52 billion in the Treasury Single Account (TSA) of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) as Cabotage Fund but will only be released to ready investors who meet guidelines.