MORE shocking facts emerged yesterday on Aviation Minister Stella Oduah’s N255 million bulletproof cars.
Duties were not paid for the luxury cars, Customs said. The vehicles came in free, using waivers meant for the Lagos State Sports Festival (Eko 2012), a House of Representatives probe panel was told.
The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) bought the cars from automobile giant Coscharis, which battled fiercely yesterday to defend its integrity.
Speaking at the hearing on the purchase of the two BMW cars, a Deputy Comptroller of Customs in charge of Modern Research and Economic Relations, Manasa Daniel Jatau, said N10,133,505.74, which should have come into the coffers of the Federal Government, was waived for Coscharis.
Jatau said the port of entry for the cars was PTML Terminal, TinCan Island Port, Lagos.
The Port of Loading was Beanr Antwerpen Port, Netherlands. The vessel/ carrier was Grimaldi Line/ Grande Atlantic VO513.
According to him, duties were not paid because of the waiver, but the “beneficiary should have been Lagos State”.
Jatau said this was because the approval issued from the Office of the National Security Adviser with end user number 000001672 dated 6th of June 2013 was in the name of Lagos State.
“The waiver was given to Lagos State for an event that happened in 2012. Coscharis applied to the Ministry of Finance, saying that the beneficiary is Lagos State,” he said.
A letter from the Budget Office of the Federation under the Ministry of Finance, dated 20 November, 2012 and addressed to the Governor of Lagos State with the title: “Import Duty, VAT, ETLS, CISS and Port Charges Waiver Certificate”, and tendered before the committee by Customs, reads in part: “I am directed to refer to your letter dated 23rd June 2012 in the above subject matter and to convey the approvalof Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief to the Lagos State Government for the waiver of Import Duty, Value Added Tax (VAT), ETLS, CISS and other port charges in respect of the importation of 300 units of BMW, Ford, Land Rover, Range Rover, Lexus, Mercedes, Escalade, Jaguar and buses ( Petrol/Diesel) for use during the 18th National Sports Festival ( EKO 2012) to be imported through Messrs Coscharis Motors Nigeria Limited, as indicated in the duly attached list.”
The letter was signed by Mrs. Rose Ngozi Marauzu, Director Revenue, for the Coordinating Minister of the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.
Members insisted that the process had been corrupted, particularly because of the luxury cars on the list as well as the fact that Coscharis sold the BMWs to NCAA at an outrageous price, in spite of the duties waiver.The lawmakers expressed doubt over the cost of the cars.
Coscharis President/ Chairman Cosmas Maduka caused a stir when in an emotional voice he responded by saying that the probe is politically-motivated and an attempt to smear a reputation he has spent over 20 years to build.
He said he had been variously described as a money launderer and accused of contract inflation.
Maduka said the price of the cars could be verified from the German Embassy. He said: “We are too small to BMW for them to risk their reputation because of us, they will give you the details of the price.
“The price of a car from the manufacturer will be different from one taken to a private armourer, but the difference between N121m and N127m was the five per cent VAT.”
“I will not do anything that is not ethical,” Maduka said.
On the variance in the chassis numbers quoted on the NCAA document and what was found on the one inspected by the Committee, Maduka said: “We provided the chassis numbers based on the document you sent inviting us but the one you are quoting now, we will send the documents for the one you saw”.
The Managing Director of Coscharis , Josiah Samuel, said due process was observed in the importation of the two cars. According to him, the company has a Memorandum of Understanding with the Federal Government on the use of cars for events.
The company, he said, provides vehicles to the Federal Government for event use without being paid, but asks for waivers to replace them.” Sometimes, it is at the twilight of the event or after the event is over that the vehicles arrive. “We then use the new ones to replace the ones we have given them from our stock.” The MOU, he said, also extends to some state governments.
Seyi Oyefeso, Group Head in charge of Lagos Office, spoke on the transaction between First Bank and NCAA. According to him, the facility the bank gave NCAA is an auto loan and not a lease as the NCAA has claimed.
He said the bank does not involve itself in the negotiations of their clients and the vendors, adding that all they do is to check if the client has the ability to repay the loan and, thereafter, pay to the vendors based on the pro-forma invoice tendered by the client.
Oyefeso said his bank paid Coscharis and Metropolitan Motors only after the NCAA wrote them that the cars had been received,
A letter to that effect, dated 16th August 2013 from NCAA with the title “Delivery of 2no.BMW 760 by Coccharis”, partly states:
“We hereby acknowledge the delivery of 2no. BMW 760 motor vehicles by Coscharis Motors Limited with Chassis nos: DW 68032 and DW 68044.
“In the light of the above, please effect the payment of the sum of N255,150,000( Two hundred and fifty- five million, one hundred and fifty thousand naira only) to Coscharis Motors Limited being the total cost of the 2 nos BMW 760 motor vehicles with Chassis nos: DW 68032 and DW 68044.”
The letter was signed by Aba Ejembi, Director of Administration, for the DG/ CEO of NCAA.
The committee, thereafter, asked the Acting DG, Joyce Nkemakolon, to provide the originating memorandum from the NCAA overriding the earlier approval for the procurement of the vehicles that was missing after the Acting DG was identified as the originator of the procurement.
“Despite knowing that the procurement was beyond budgetary provisions, yet you presented the memo to the Minister. Did you include the budgetary provisions for that sub head in the memo for the procurement of those two cars?” the chairperson asked.
The Acting DG did not answer.
There was also an argument over the actual numbers of vehicles bought and approved in the budget.
A document showed 56. Another showed 54, but the Director of Finance, Ozigi, said anything other than 54 operational vehicles was not to his knowledge.
A member of the committee, Raphael Igbokwe, said: “Then there is something between you, the internal auditor and the procurement officer in the Ministry of Aviation over this procurement that you are not telling us.”
On why the NCAA insisted on going on with the leasing after being informed by First Bank that it was not disposed to leasing facility but loan, the Acting DG said: “I signed the agreement based on advice from my colleagues that leasing and loan facilities are the same. I thought the templates are the same.”
The Committee was, however, shocked when the Acting DG said though he was the Chief Executive Officer during the period under investigation, he was not aware of the delivery of the two vehicles.
Members accused Coscharis and NCAA of ripping Nigerians off through the car deal.
A member noted: “One of the cars we inspected looked like a used car, not like one that was supplied in August this year because even one of the tyres is almost torn, with a mileage of over 3000 kilometers.”
Nkemakolon said he had no immediate response to both observations.
The Chairman of the Committee said the proceedings so far had shown that some people would not own up to the truth and continue to lie under oath.
She, however, advised the Minister to appear today by 10am together with the NCAA and Coscharis teams. “The Minister sent a letter that she is in transit but we advise her to appear here tomorrow (today) by 10am because we must conclude this hearing by 12pm.
“If not, we will take that she did not want to appear before the Committee but we have a duty and we must put in our report before the House by Tuesday. We will not shift this hearing even by a minute,” Mrs Onyejeocha warned.
