Federal Executive Council (FEC)
on Wednesday approved AMG (Airline Management Group) to work on establishment
of a new national carrier.
Minister of State, Aviation, Hadi
Sirika, stated this when he briefed State House correspondents at the end of
the weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja.
Government had in May 2017
appointed Messers Lufthansa consortium and five other advisers to help it set
up a national airline and develop its aviation infrastructure.
“Today Council considered a memo
from transportation regarding aviation”, Sirika said.
“It was a memo that was brought
to substitute a member of the consortium that will provide transaction advisory
services for the establishment of a National career.
“And that member of the
consortium is Messers Lufthansa consulting.
“Council considered and approved
that substitution with another company called AMG (Airline Management Group)
with Avia Solutions GE to join the other members of the consortium to continue
providing the same services at the same cost; this is only substitution’’ he
said.
The minister explained that
substitution was made “fundamentally, in the wisdom of the council, we felt
that Lufthansa consulting is an appendage of the airline group and that might
bring conflict of interests.
“Lufthansa themselves may want to
join, partner or help in the process during the procurement phase of this
transaction.
“And of course they are members
of Star Alliance, members of One World and members of Sky team, others may feel
shortchanged.
“(Its like) the person advising
us set up this airline which is going to be private sector driven, is a member
of an alliance which they are not part of.’’
“Since we appointed the
transactions advisers in various aviation projects in May 2017, about six of
them, five of them have gone ahead, the one for construction of airport, the
one for aeropolise and the one for MRO and so on and so forth.
“Most of them have produced the
outline business cases and we are on our way to doing the full business case.
However, Lufthansa Consulting, did not accept the offer neither have they
signed any contract.
“They countered the offer
instead. One of the conditions is that we should pay them 75 per cent of the
total cost, which is against our procurement law.
“They also wanted us to change
the contract from Naira to Euro, they also wanted us to open an Escrow account
in an internationally recognized bank outside the country where the money will
be domiciles etc.
“We couldn’t continue with them
because it will compromise the system which we thought should be transparent, so
that is why we sought the approval of council to substitute them why a neutral
person.”
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