Aviation Ministry owe contractors N174.3bn
Suleiman Bello
House of Representatives Committee on Aviation has frowned at Ministry of Aviation for owing contractors N174.3 billion.
The committee also expressed their discomfort over the rationale behind a $500 million Chinese loan obtained by the ministry last year for the purpose of constructing Port Harcourt, Abuja, Kano and Lagos terminals in addition to a counterpart $100 million fund obtained by the Debt Management Office on behalf of the ministry.
Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Honourable Nkeiru Onyejeocha, who led other members in an oversight function to the ministry in Abuja described the N174.3 billion debt by the ministry as scary.
Because of the ministry indebtnes, the House committee had asked the ministry to henceforth halt contract awards, and review other previous contracts it had entered and mandated the ministry to furnish it with information on whether all contracts were certified and followed due process and if such contracts are still worthy of continuation.
“What your action simply means is that Nigerian aviation industry will keep paying debt till the next 20 years, because looking at the appropriation we have today, even last year and what was appropriated the previous two years back, it’s a serious concern for this committee that I do not know how aviation ministry will be mortgaged to indebtedness of N174 billion,” she said.
Minister in-charge of the debt-ridden ministry, Dr. Samuel of Ortom had admitted that the cash crunch situation has gone so critical that some contractors handling the ministry projects are threatening to drag the ministry to court.
“There’s no doubt that we owe our contractors. Some of them have threatened to stop work if we do not hasten their payment. Right now, some of them are even threatening to take us to court. We cannot go and push them to continue work without payment.” He said.
