Teddy Oscar, Abuja
The last may not have been heard of the controversial BMW bulletproof cars that were bought for the minister of aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, by the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) at the cost of $1.6 million (about N255 million).
This follows revelation that Coscharis Motors Limited lied to the National Security Adviser (NSA) to swindle the Nigerian taxpayers of more than N10 million in waivers.
This is even as the minister, again, snubbed the invitation of the lawmakers to appear before the committee.
Speaking at the second day of the investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation on the purchase of the cars, Manasah Daniel Jatau, deputy comptroller general in charge of modernisation and public relations, disclosed that the automobile dealing firm provided wrong information to evade the huge sum of N10,133,505.74 million it would have paid for import duties for importing the two BMW760 Series bulletproof cars.
Jatau, who represented Abdullahi Dikko, comptroller general customs, at the investigation, testified that Coscharis deceived NSA to evade to get waivers for the two vehicles.
“The duty payable was supposed to be N10,133,505.74 million, but that duty was not paid because the said import has an import duty exemption certificate (IDEC) number BO/R.102/S.3/V.111B/73 of 20/11/2012 issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance.
“This import duty exemption certificate beneficiary was issued to the Lagos State government (the beneficiary) through Messrs Coscharis Motors Limited for the 18th National Sports Festival (Eko 2012).
“The end user number is 000001672 of 6th June 2013, and it was issued by the office of the National Security Adviser. That is the information we have,” Jatau revealed.
Documents NCS presented to the committee revealed that the Import Duty, VAT, ETLS, CISS and Port Charges Waiver Certificate were issued by the Federal Ministry of Finance on the November 20, 2012, and was signed by the director of Revenue, Mrs. Rose Ngozi Maranzu, on behalf of the minister of finance.
“I am directed to refer to your letter dated 23 rd June, 2012, on the above subject matter and to convey the approval of Mr President and commander-in-chief to the Lagos State Government for waiver on 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 certified attached list,” it read.
Jatau also disclosed that contrary to reports that the Office of the National Security Adviser does not have information on the armoured cars been within Nigeria, a signed copy of a pre-shipment inspection end-user certificate issued by the NSA on 6th of June, 2013 show that due approval was gotten from the office for Coscharis Motors to import three armoured cars valued at $USD223,653.48 into Nigeria for commercial purposes.
The document, identified as Form A, had the stamp of the Office of the National Security Adviser appended on it.
In his presentation, the chairman of Coscharis Motors, Mr. Cosmos Maduka, explained that the price of the vehicles were high due to their quality.
“To the best of my knowledge, we followed due process in the purchase of the cars. We were interviewed by the SSS and the NSA,” he added.
Explaining the waiver, he said it was an agreement between the federal government and Coscharis that when they have a major events such as COJA and EKO Games and cannot afford to buy cars, the company would provide cars to use, while the Federal Government grants it waivers in return.
“We have a duty waiver from the federal government for 300 vehicles. This is not the first time we are getting this, we got it during COJA,” he said.
Also speaking at the hearing, Josiah Samuel, a director of Coscharis, observed that the cars would have been sold for more than they were actually bought for by NCAA, if Coscharis was to have paid duties for the cars.
“If we were to pay duty, each of those cars would have been sold for N188 million,” Samuel added.
Meanwhile, the minister of aviation, again, failed to honour the invitation of the committee.
The committee had last week adjourned the hearing to enable Oduah return from Israel and appear before it, but she was absent from the meeting, and a correspondence signed by the permanent secretary of the minister of the ministry of aviation, George Ossi, sent to the committee by NCAA, stated that she was on transit at the time she was expected to appear yesterday, but would be available at 2.00 pm today.
But the committee chairperson, Hon. Nkiruka Onyejiocha, insisted that she appears unfailingly at 10.00 am today (Thursday), failure of which would be assumed that she does not want to attend the hearing.
“Tomorrow’s date is sacrosanct. Please communicate that to her,” she said after explaining that it is in the spirit of fair hearing that the lawmakers kept shifting the dates to enable her state her case before the committee.
In its own submission, First Bank Plc told the committee that its own part was just to finance the purchase of the vehicles for operational use of NCAA, while adding that it complied with all requirements in the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).
Speaking on behalf of the bank, Mr. Seyi Oyefeso, group head, retail, said the bank paid the N643 million to Coscharis and Metropolitan motors on behalf of NCAA, adding that they demanded and received an approval letter for the permission to take a loan before they granted the facility to NCAA in compliance with FRA.
The bank also denied that it entered into an automobile lease agreement with NCAA, as Oyefeso hinted that the bank entered into a loan agreement with NCAA.
During the first day of investigation, Joyce Nkemakolam, who was in acting capacity as the director general of NCAA, said that the agency adopted a lease financing method to acquire the said vehicles, and would make the payment in 36 monthly equal instalments, which only two have been paid as at October 2013.
But Oyesefo said that the bank had a loan agreement with NCAA, which should be paid for over a period of 36 months.
“Now, between when the loan was disbursed in August they (NCAA) will have to pay us over that period to December, and the obligation stands at N116,245,903.90 up to December 31, 2013,” he added.
