An advocacy group, Transparency Initiative, has petitioned President Muhammadu Bbuhari over alleged rot in the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria.
The group, in a petition by three legal practitioners, Nnaemeka Amaechina, George Nwahajioke and Taiwo Adegbite, said the college was deviating from its statutory role, function and the legacy left behind by the founding fathers.
They claimed that the Aviation College had become the beacon of corruption and financial impropriety in recent years, warning that if urgent measures were not taken by concerned authorities, the college might be heading to doldrums.
The President’s attention was drawn to a contract allegedly illegally awarded and eventual splitting of same for re-fleeting of trainer aircraft worth over $20 million, awarded to a certain company in Lagos.
It also claimed that, the contract, as at that time, had no Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, approval and the “Certificate of No Objection,” as required by due process was not obtained.
The petition read in part: “As at the time of award of this contract, which is November 17, 2014, the said company had not been registered and its address on the contract document looked fictitious.
“The BPP initially refused to grant NCAT certificate of no objection to proceed with this project because the 2014 Appropriation Act made only N400,000 provision for re-fleeting of NCAT aircraft and for two engines specifically.”
The petition, copied the Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi and Minister of State, Aviation, Senator Abubakar Sirika, urged Buhari to employ all investigative apparatuses to further verify all their claims and those involved in the financial indecency.
VANGAURD
