Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Stella Adaeze
Oduah, has been accused of allocating funds
for multiple sham contracts ostensibly for
the rehabilitation and upgrade of eleven
airports across the country.
A petition by members of the National Union
of Air Transport accuses Mrs. Oduah of
touting the rehab projects as “quick-win”
strategies to burnish President Goodluck
Jonathan’s “transformation agenda.” In a
letter to the leadership of the Nigerian
Senate in July, the petitioners detailed a
series of scams at various levels in the
allocation process of the contracts.
Incidentally, the minister has drawn praise
from the Nigerian media for the ongoing
airport remodeling projects. But the
petitioners portray the exercise as an
elaborate scam and daylight robbery of
public funds. In the words of the petition,
the projects are “calculated to dupe [the]
unsuspecting Nigerian public.”
The petition discloses that the two-phase
projects have become a four-level scam.
The first part was the ministry’s allocation of
funds for “consultancy” service, which called
for select firms to draw up designs and
plans for the upgrade and rehabilitation of
the airports. The second part was the
allocation of the actual contracts to
predetermined companies through a rigged
tenders’ process that ignored advertising
the jobs to attract qualified companies. The
third and fourth segments of the alleged
scam involved the repetition of the first two
steps under a spurious tag called “Phase II.”
The petitioners alleged that, prior to the
award of the main contracts to “upgrade
and rehabilitate” the airports, Mrs. Oduah
had handed out consultancy jobs estimated
at N255 million. The contracts reportedly
went to three crony firms without being
advertised in order to attract bids from
qualified companies.
The petition also alleged that the
consultancy jobs were awarded without
first obtaining certificates of “No Objection”
from the Bureau of Public Procurement
(BPP), thereby breaching the due process set
out to guide the award of contracts.
According to the petitioners, Mrs. Oduah
“contracted three consultant firms to carry
out consultancy services for ‘urgent
upgrade’ and rehabilitation of terminal
buildings in the eleven airports in the
country. This, she labeled Phase 1 of the
airport remodeling exercise.” The unionists
added that, before informing the Tenders
Board about the allocation of contracts, the
minister had predetermined and given out
consultancy jobs to the three firms in a
selective tender mode.
“Messrs Ngonyama Okpanum and
Associates; Messrs Design Union Consulting
Ltd and Messrs Triad Associates Ltd were
awarded contracts for consultancy works
on the upgrade of the airports at the sums
of N99, 179,507.17; N60, 986,730.46 and
N95, 520,011.93 respectively without
advertisement, certificate of No Objection
from the BPP or approval by the tender’s
board,” the union stated.
The petition alleged that members of the
ministry’s Tenders Board were cajoled into
ratifying the allocations and to further
approve a “selective tender” method for the
award of the actual contracts. “The
Companies were awarded in ‘anticipatory
approval,’ with [a] plan that [the] certificate
of No Objection would be obtained (later)
from the BPP,” the petition alleged. Then
they contended that the minister’s action
amounted to “a criminal offense and had led
to impeachment of a seating senator at one
time.”
The petition alleged that Mrs. Oduah orally
informed the Aviation Ministry Tender’s
Board that she had approval from President
Goodluck Jonathan to adopt “selective
tendering” in awarding the contracts,
adding that such presidential approval was
non-existent.
SaharaReporters saw a correspondence
between the FAAN and the BPP where a
reference was made to the president’s said
approval, but the actual letter was never
seen, according to the union.
The BPP had relied on the virtual president’s
approval as the basis for approving the
selective tender mode for the ministry to
carry out the project. The BPP wrote: “On
the strength of Mr. President’s approval, Due
Process ‘No Objection’ is hereby granted to
Federal Ministry of Aviation to adopt
Selective Tendering Method for the urgent
Upgrade and Rehabilitation Works at Eleven
(11) Airport Terminals in the country.”
Based on the above, the Air Transport Union
insists that the minister’s use of “selective
tendering” to award contracts only to
companies that were predetermined by the
ministry, violated sections 40-42 of the
Public Procurement Acts. According to the
union, selective tendering is only acceptable
when a particular contract requires some
peculiar expertise available only to a select
few companies. “Renovation of terminal
buildings falls short of this requirement, but
BPP approved it for Selective Tendering
(notwithstanding),” alleged the union.
Meanwhile, the FAAN had cited “urgency” as
its reason for adopting the selective
tendering mode and had allotted six months
as the maximum duration for the projects.
However, according to the petitioners, the
projects, which began in 2011, have not
come close to completion, contrary to the
ministry’s hype.
An executive of the tender’s board told
SaharaReporters that the union’s petition
“has merit.” According to him, “They said it
was for urgency that they elected the
selective tender method and stipulated six
months, but it is over two years now and
you can see their basis for selective tender is
defeated. This is all fraud.” He added,
“Besides, what they called Phase II is
approval for second time on the same
projects they called Phase I.”
The union observed that the list of
companies proposed by the Aviation
Ministry to obtain BPP approval were
completely different from those the minister
eventually awarded the contract to, even
though she never sought again to ratify her
decision with the BPP.
Mrs. Oduah “got approval for the job using
some companies, but substituted the
companies later without writing back to the
BPP for fresh approval,” the petitioners
alleged, adding that the actual contracts, like
the Consultancy, were also not advertised on
official tenders’ journals or on any national
dailies. SaharaReporters learnt that some
members of the tender’s board had raised
questions during a September, 2012
meeting when the acting Managing Director
of the FAAN, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, had sought
their approval for said Phase II of the
project. Some board members reported
demanded a progress report on the first
phase they approved. They also questioned
the capability of the contractors proposed
by the Aviation Ministry to simultaneously
carry out a Phase II when there had not
been any significant progress on the so-
called Phase I. The union as well as tenders
board member who spoke to our
correspondent alleged that Phased II was
fraught with contract duplications from
Phase I.
“For example, Zakhem Construction Nig. Ltd
was awarded the contract for upgrade of
MMIA Lagos in the 1st phase at the sum of
N920, 191, 147.58. Curiously, [the] same
company was awarded another contract in
the tune of N981, 900,300.45 for ‘upgrade
and rehabilitation’ of MMIA Lagos, under a
spurious banner of Phase II.” According to
the petition, “the entire Phase II is sheer
duplication of Phase I.”
The union further alleged that the “various
contractors [were] still on site implementing
phase I, seven months after respective
awards, without any comprehensive project
status report to determine capability of the
companies, yet the Ministry awarded ‘phase
II’ jobs to [the] same firms.”
They also noted that the memos for the jobs
were initiated by FAAN, whereas the
contracts were for the ministry. The
employees also said the contracts had
always been awarded before the reports
were made. “The consultancy contracts
were merely [a] smokescreen to siphon
money,” the petition alleged.
In an exchange of correspondence between
the FAAN and the BPP, obtained by
Saharareporters, the BPP asked FAAN to do
more due diligence to ascertain that the
contractors had actual capability to
simultaneously carry on with another
project when they had yet to make any
significant progress in the said first phase.
The BPP had also requested that the FAAN
check with the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) to ensure that the
companies it awarded contracts to were
“unrelated.” There was no indication that
the FAAN complied.
The petition stated that “most of the
contractors on site are not among those
approved by the BPP in the adopted
Selective Tender method,” adding a concern
“about the safety of patrons at the airports”
as well as the abuse of public funds.
In interviews with SaharaReporters, two
leaders of the union expressed
disappointment that the leadership of the
Senate had taken no action since receiving
their petition.

What do we expect before ?

Labour unionism is becoming another looting department in Nigeria. From ASUU and now to aviation, the mostly lazy and unproductive union leaders are desperately looking for looting loopholes.

Ok...........................!

She must recoup her neighbour to neighbour funds nah or what were you expecting

Sincere 9gerian: Labour unionism is becoming another looting department in Nigeria. From ASUU and now to aviation, the mostly lazy and unproductive union leaders are desperately looking for looting loopholes.

Shut up, demonic lair

It's ubiquitous, hence, I'm not surprised.

He he he nothing new who doesn't know its business as usual for this PDP govt? Even the Senate won't do anything about it as long as oga at the top has a hand in it.

@Op try and edit before posting
@topic the woman still better than FFK administration sha

Controversy: @Op try and edit before posting
@topic the woman still better than FFK administration sha

Comparing mediocrity with mediocrity

More lies.. Stella just continue with the good work u are doing with Nigeria Aviation sector, let the haters just continue to social network.

Bloody time wasters.

Sincere 9gerian: Labour unionism is becoming another looting department in Nigeria. From ASUU and now to aviation, the mostly lazy and unproductive union leaders are desperately looking for looting loopholes.

i know say Wetin you go chop make no talk true, this woman was accuse of corruption and fraudulent, you're there saying rubbish. you must be a bigot.

Bliss4Lyfe: More lies.. Stella just continue with the good work u are doing with Nigeria Aviation sector, let the haters just continue to social network.

Bloody time wasters.

ibo people, why can't you behave like a typical yoruba man and always fight for the truth. this act of mediocrity of yours is becoming alarming

Sahara again?Well i would say she is corrupt if the companies are owned by her or verifiable evidences are established that the process was rigged.These days anybody can write anything just to pull something down.We want explicit proof the process was rigged not this sponsored character assasination trash.

I'm not surprised.

Sincere 9gerian: Labour unionism is becoming another looting department in Nigeria. From ASUU and now to aviation, the mostly lazy and unproductive union leaders are desperately looking for looting loopholes.

You don't fail to disappoint......

I have noticed a trend in my dear nation~ The ones doing their best for nation to see the light will always be the point of attack from the darkness and the powers that have crippled a nation filled with potential to be among world best.I read the other day some people were calling for coordinating minister to be sacked! Our real enemies is the way opposition is practiced in this country.iam in no way saying that she is clean but, from where I'm watching from this woman is doing a great job.

See another South West hypocrite. If you are not conversant with Nigerian Unions then never take their assertion for first hand value. I used to be a branch PRO of NLC and I learnt that every statement or adoption is all about personal or group interest.

When union leaders loose their sources of government support/contributions, they fight back using petitions, outright libels and witch-hunt to restore the status-quo-ante.

Don't believe this information until the National Assembly looks into their petition while conducting thorough investigation. We can then look into their findings
.

Until then this article is an allegation.

fagbalex:

ibo people, why can't you behave like a typical yoruba man and always fight for the truth. this act of mediocrity of yours is becoming alarming

Scam ,scamming and scammers everywhere.
The first thing about transparency is due process.
No wonder GEJ and his cronies hate ekwesili .
This woman called Oduah is a product of that system.

all this bastards sef... una no go allow this woman work? abeg persin weh work mk e chop. wen dat foolish ffk dey dia wetin him do? she is working so she is entitled to chopings

fagbalex:

ibo people, why can't you behave like a typical yoruba man and always fight for the truth. this act of mediocrity of yours is becoming alarming

This is TRASH

Chubhie: I have noticed a trend in my dear nation~ The ones doing their best for nation to see the light will always be the point of attack from the darkness and the powers that have crippled a nation filled with potential to be among world best.I read the other day some people were calling for coordinating minister to be sacked! Our real enemies is the way opposition is practiced in this country.iam in no way saying that she is clean but, from where I'm watching from this woman is doing a great job.

As dirty as she may be, she's still 1million mile better than FEMI KAYODE. chief mediocre that nearly crippled Nigeria aviation

berem: You don't fail to disappoint......

It is true lovers are metaphorically blind not love. I cursed the day you stepped foot on Lagos.

And who is this PETITIONER with no name

Mr. Aladin:
Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Stella Adaeze
Oduah, has been accused of allocating funds
for multiple sham contracts ostensibly for
the rehabilitation and upgrade of eleven
airports across the country.
A petition by members of the National Union
of Air Transport accuses Mrs. Oduah of
touting the rehab projects as “quick-win”
strategies to burnish President Goodluck
Jonathan’s “transformation agenda.” In a
letter to the leadership of the Nigerian
Senate in July, the petitioners detailed a
series of scams at various levels in the
allocation process of the contracts.
Incidentally, the minister has drawn praise
from the Nigerian media for the ongoing
airport remodeling projects. But the
petitioners portray the exercise as an
elaborate scam and daylight robbery of
public funds. In the words of the petition,
the projects are “calculated to dupe [the]
unsuspecting Nigerian public.”
The petition discloses that the two-phase
projects have become a four-level scam.
The first part was the ministry’s allocation of
funds for “consultancy” service, which called
for select firms to draw up designs and
plans for the upgrade and rehabilitation of
the airports. The second part was the
allocation of the actual contracts to
predetermined companies through a rigged
tenders’ process that ignored advertising
the jobs to attract qualified companies. The
third and fourth segments of the alleged
scam involved the repetition of the first two
steps under a spurious tag called “Phase II.”
The petitioners alleged that, prior to the
award of the main contracts to “upgrade
and rehabilitate” the airports, Mrs. Oduah
had handed out consultancy jobs estimated
at N255 million. The contracts reportedly
went to three crony firms without being
advertised in order to attract bids from
qualified companies.
The petition also alleged that the
consultancy jobs were awarded without
first obtaining certificates of “No Objection”
from the Bureau of Public Procurement
(BPP), thereby breaching the due process set
out to guide the award of contracts.
According to the petitioners, Mrs. Oduah
“contracted three consultant firms to carry
out consultancy services for ‘urgent
upgrade’ and rehabilitation of terminal
buildings in the eleven airports in the
country. This, she labeled Phase 1 of the
airport remodeling exercise.” The unionists
added that, before informing the Tenders
Board about the allocation of contracts, the
minister had predetermined and given out
consultancy jobs to the three firms in a
selective tender mode.
“Messrs Ngonyama Okpanum and
Associates; Messrs Design Union Consulting
Ltd and Messrs Triad Associates Ltd were
awarded contracts for consultancy works
on the upgrade of the airports at the sums
of N99, 179,507.17; N60, 986,730.46 and
N95, 520,011.93 respectively without
advertisement, certificate of No Objection
from the BPP or approval by the tender’s
board,” the union stated.
The petition alleged that members of the
ministry’s Tenders Board were cajoled into
ratifying the allocations and to further
approve a “selective tender” method for the
award of the actual contracts. “The
Companies were awarded in ‘anticipatory
approval,’ with [a] plan that [the] certificate
of No Objection would be obtained (later)
from the BPP,” the petition alleged. Then
they contended that the minister’s action
amounted to “a criminal offense and had led
to impeachment of a seating senator at one
time.”
The petition alleged that Mrs. Oduah orally
informed the Aviation Ministry Tender’s
Board that she had approval from President
Goodluck Jonathan to adopt “selective
tendering” in awarding the contracts,
adding that such presidential approval was
non-existent.
SaharaReporters saw a correspondence
between the FAAN and the BPP where a
reference was made to the president’s said
approval, but the actual letter was never
seen, according to the union.
The BPP had relied on the virtual president’s
approval as the basis for approving the
selective tender mode for the ministry to
carry out the project. The BPP wrote: “On
the strength of Mr. President’s approval, Due
Process ‘No Objection’ is hereby granted to
Federal Ministry of Aviation to adopt
Selective Tendering Method for the urgent
Upgrade and Rehabilitation Works at Eleven
(11) Airport Terminals in the country.”
Based on the above, the Air Transport Union
insists that the minister’s use of “selective
tendering” to award contracts only to
companies that were predetermined by the
ministry, violated sections 40-42 of the
Public Procurement Acts. According to the
union, selective tendering is only acceptable
when a particular contract requires some
peculiar expertise available only to a select
few companies. “Renovation of terminal
buildings falls short of this requirement, but
BPP approved it for Selective Tendering
(notwithstanding),” alleged the union.
Meanwhile, the FAAN had cited “urgency” as
its reason for adopting the selective
tendering mode and had allotted six months
as the maximum duration for the projects.
However, according to the petitioners, the
projects, which began in 2011, have not
come close to completion, contrary to the
ministry’s hype.
An executive of the tender’s board told
SaharaReporters that the union’s petition
“has merit.” According to him, “They said it
was for urgency that they elected the
selective tender method and stipulated six
months, but it is over two years now and
you can see their basis for selective tender is
defeated. This is all fraud.” He added,
“Besides, what they called Phase II is
approval for second time on the same
projects they called Phase I.”
The union observed that the list of
companies proposed by the Aviation
Ministry to obtain BPP approval were
completely different from those the minister
eventually awarded the contract to, even
though she never sought again to ratify her
decision with the BPP.
Mrs. Oduah “got approval for the job using
some companies, but substituted the
companies later without writing back to the
BPP for fresh approval,” the petitioners
alleged, adding that the actual contracts, like
the Consultancy, were also not advertised on
official tenders’ journals or on any national
dailies. SaharaReporters learnt that some
members of the tender’s board had raised
questions during a September, 2012
meeting when the acting Managing Director
of the FAAN, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, had sought
their approval for said Phase II of the
project. Some board members reported
demanded a progress report on the first
phase they approved. They also questioned
the capability of the contractors proposed
by the Aviation Ministry to simultaneously
carry out a Phase II when there had not
been any significant progress on the so-
called Phase I. The union as well as tenders
board member who spoke to our
correspondent alleged that Phased II was
fraught with contract duplications from
Phase I.
“For example, Zakhem Construction Nig. Ltd
was awarded the contract for upgrade of
MMIA Lagos in the 1st phase at the sum of
N920, 191, 147.58. Curiously, [the] same
company was awarded another contract in
the tune of N981, 900,300.45 for ‘upgrade
and rehabilitation’ of MMIA Lagos, under a
spurious banner of Phase II.” According to
the petition, “the entire Phase II is sheer
duplication of Phase I.”
The union further alleged that the “various
contractors [were] still on site implementing
phase I, seven months after respective
awards, without any comprehensive project
status report to determine capability of the
companies, yet the Ministry awarded ‘phase
II’ jobs to [the] same firms.”
They also noted that the memos for the jobs
were initiated by FAAN, whereas the
contracts were for the ministry. The
employees also said the contracts had
always been awarded before the reports
were made. “The consultancy contracts
were merely [a] smokescreen to siphon
money,” the petition alleged.
In an exchange of correspondence between
the FAAN and the BPP, obtained by
Saharareporters, the BPP asked FAAN to do
more due diligence to ascertain that the
contractors had actual capability to
simultaneously carry on with another
project when they had yet to make any
significant progress in the said first phase.
The BPP had also requested that the FAAN
check with the Corporate Affairs
Commission (CAC) to ensure that the
companies it awarded contracts to were
“unrelated.” There was no indication that
the FAAN complied.
The petition stated that “most of the
contractors on site are not among those
approved by the BPP in the adopted
Selective Tender method,” adding a concern
“about the safety of patrons at the airports”
as well as the abuse of public funds.
In interviews with SaharaReporters, two
leaders of the union expressed
disappointment that the leadership of the
Senate had taken no action since receiving
their petition.

The above post is one of the reasons that urgently call for disintegration of the cesspit called Nigeria. Any good work borne out of unbiased philosophies is subjected to tribally biased criticisms. Certain section of Nigeria has not slept or rested since Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu saw the first international flight landed and took-off from the airport.

.

enemies of progress at wrk n i hope gej wont fall for dis by callin for her dismissal

#Yawns
Mtcheew

geeez: If you thought those airport renovations were just because she wanted to leave a legacy, you better think again

She's likely leaving more than a lasting impression on her bank accounts

. Going by what u said why did ffk not renovate the airport rather he choose to embezzle over 19 billion naira

It's possible. If it is, hope they can prove their case.