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 Daily Independent Online.
* Friday, July 23, 2004.
Management reshuffle imminent in FAAN
Stories by Shola Ogunode
Aviation
Reporter, Lagos
The
Minister of Aviation, Mallam Isa Yuguda, has hinted on a likely
leadership overhaul at the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).
Disclosing
this during an interactive session with journalists, Yuguda informed that
“efforts are underway to overhaul the leadership of the commercial and
planning department of FAAN”.
Earlier,
the ministry had conducted an enquiry into the procedures and guidelines
by which the authority had awarded contracts and concessionaries.
Thereafter, the report submitted by the committee set up for the reviews
had recommended, among others, that the leadership of the commercial
department be changed so as to enhance revenue generation, which would in
turn improve the service delivery of the agency.
Besides,
following the review of airport concession at FAAN, the debt recovery
teams were established and their activities have resulted in a
substantial reduction of the debts owed FAAN.
The
sanitation exercise has also improved FAAN’s revenue base from a paltry
monthly sum of between N500, 000 and N650, 000 last year to about N1
billion monthly since the begining of this year.
Prior to
the re-organisation of the various parastatals under the ministry early
this year, Yuguda had
explained that the exercise was
imperative, considering the fact that “most agencies in the
ministry have been characterised by godfatherism with high level of indiscipline
and disregard to the ethics of aviation practitioners.” The
re-organisation was, therefore, aimed at ensuring that the parastatals
were effectively managed by focused, experienced and highly profesional
personnel, who are capable of facilitating the realisation of government
policies.
However,
after the committee submitted its report on the review of contracts
besides that of concessions, it established that the total debt profile
of FAAN was N11,396,311,039.77 instead of the earlier sum of over N12
billion.
From the
report, it was discovered that most of the contracts were not awarded on
the basis of need but to satisfy some extraneous requests. In addition,
some of these contracts were not processed in accordance with the extant procedures and
regulations, governing the award of contracts in the public service.
There were also cases of overpricing, as well as recycling of items.
Consequently, the minister
directed FAAN to set aside funds
monthly to pay off authenticated debts, which the agency begun two
months ago.
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