Alleged Corruption in NCAA Exposed

Recently, the Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo acknowledged in a television interview that there is inherent corruption in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority. The Minister is however aligning with the new NCAA’s management to stamp out corruption, writes Chinedu Eze

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, in a recent interview with a local TV station said corruption and unethical practices are rife among officials of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), alleging that some officials falsified airlines’ safety reports and engaged in other nefarious activities that negate their core and primary responsibilities of prioritising and ensuring safety and global best practices in the aviation sector.

Keyamo went further to say that public servants in the aviation sector acquired unexplained wealth by endangering the lives of Nigerians.

But in a swift response, Director, Public Affairs and Consumer Protection at NCAA, Mr. Michael Achimugu, told THISDAY that what the Minister said was what he inherited from past administration and he had been trying to change it.

According to Achimugu, the minister appointed new management, which he detailed to change the situation and it is what the Acting Director General, newly appointed directors and others are striving to change in the agency.

“It is because of that situation that the Minister decided to change the management; so that such will not continue to happen under his watch. Corruption is systemic and can exist in any organization. The Minister was not referring to the present management that he appointed. He appointed the new management to clean out the system. Our duty is to investigate and carry out forensic audit and weed out the corrupt elements. So, I reiterate that the Minister was not referring to the present management,” Achimugu said.

Industry stakeholders, however, are of the view that changing the management of NCAA cannot stamp out the said corruption.

They stated that if the minister really wishes to eliminate corruption, certain policies must be changed and the technical officers in the agencies must be well remunerated.

Lingering Complaints

There have been a lot of complaints by airline operators over some certain policies that are inimical to the operators, which could be changed to ease operation for them because they do not add to improvement of safety; rather, they are just bureaucratic processes that tend to cause delays and make things difficult for the operators.

In 2020, the management of Tropical Arctic Logistics (TAL), led by its Chief Operating Officer, Femi Adeniji, accused the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority of frustrating the company from renewing its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC).
According to Adeniji, TAL applied for the renewal of its AOC on September 7, 2020, which was seven days before the expiration date and in accordance with the Nigerian Civil Aviation requirement Part 9.

“Some of those who are entrusted with certain positions at NCAA go above the board to help. There is abundant evidence that all the manuals we submitted and re-submitted with amendment were lost by the NCAA Airworthiness Standards Directorate. And as proof, two manuals were brought back last weekend out of seven that we reprinted. They just found them after seven months of submission. It is on record that futile attempts were made to heap the blame on COVID-19,” Adeniji narrated.

He said that new manuals were however reprinted and resubmitted, “but surprisingly, the lost manual, despite meeting the regulator’s requirements, the AOC renewal was still delayed by the Directorate of Airworthiness and Standards.

Consequently, (our) operation has been grounded, which delayed the process of the AOC too. We did apply for extension to avoid grounding of our operation, but we were denied on the 16th of December. Up till date, NCAA still has our maintenance control manual at the Airworthiness Directorate and our AMP, which is the Aircraft Maintenance Programme.

“The department claimed that its refusal to approve the manual was based on the fact that we do not have post holders on manuals submitted in September 2020. Yes, presently some post holders have resigned because when you don’t have operation for 18 months, and we still pay salaries, how do you justify that and pilots and engineers, based on what their profession is, need to put their hands to work.”

He alleged that the directorate was corrupt and cited an example. “Generally, why does Airworthiness Directorate replicate manuals? When you submit manuals they expect you to put them in CDs, USB and Word document because they use that, copy paste to work for somebody else when they are supposed to be a regulatory body. Indeed, I have never seen a situation where initial certification is the same process as renewal when the regulator already has information of the company with you,” he alleged.

However, the then Director General of NCAA, Captain Musa Nuhu, in his reaction, said that the NCAA has no reason whatsoever to refuse the renewal of anybody’s application. He said TAL never met the requirement for renewal of its AOC, stressing that its AOC would not be renewed until the company met all the regulatory requirements.

This issue aroused discussions on the processes of obtaining Air Operator Certificate and renewal of same, as some insiders were asking why it should take the same procedure.

Some senior airline officials who spoke to THISDAY then disagreed with the NCAA’s policy of renewal of AOC every two years, and also complained that it is the same process which a new airline goes through to obtain the certificate that an existing airline that has been operating also goes through despite the fact that NCAA regulates the airlines and appointed officers that monitor the activities of the operators.

A top official of one of the major airlines in Nigeria, who had worked with two well-known mega carriers in the world, told THISDAY that in many countries AOC is for life for the airline, unless if the regulatory authority rescinds it. The source said that NCAA hurts the airlines through stiff regulations and also introduces stringent measures that may not even be necessary for the operating environment.
The source frowned at the situation of repeating the same process for initial AOC on airlines that are renewing theirs.

“Every process they use for airlines that want to get new AOC is what they use for renewal. The same process; that is what we do every two years and the problem really is that Airworthiness Standards Directorate has few experienced hands who worked with the defunct Nigeria Airways Limited (NAL), but the others started work with NCAA from the university,” the source said.

The source added that NCAA does not think about the survival of airlines, unlike the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which looks at financial implication of processes for airlines, noting that as regulatory authority, NCAA ought to also look at financial implications of its directives to airlines and review those that do not have bearing on safety and may not also be urgent.

Oversea Aircraft Inspection

The operators also criticised the policy of flying NCAA inspectors overseas to go and insect aircraft after maintenance or during the acquisition of new equipment. Former Director General of NCAA, the Late Captain Muhtar Usman, had told THISDAY that the policy does not improve safety but it was a policy decided by the Nigerian regulatory body, which need had been overtaken by events with ICT.

He cited the instance of Brazil where the regulatory authority would specify to the airlines what it wants in the aircraft and it would be brought into the country and the civil aviation authority would inspect it and approve or disapprove if the conditions given were not met.

The Managing Director and CEO of Aero Contractors, Captain Ado Sanusi, told THISDAY on Wednesday that over the years certain actions and policies have encouraged the creation of corrupt environment at NCAA, “and unless the environment is cleansed of the corrupt system, if you bring new people and keep them in the same environment, they will become corrupt over time.”

“When you create a corrupt environment there is the tendency that anyone that comes into that environment will be corrupted. When you are travelling overseas to inspect aircraft or maintenance facility for simulator training or aircraft maintenance; if you require the operator to give you flight ticket money per diem, you are creating environment for corruption. It is not good for NCAA inspectors to see travel as a source of money making. NCAA should review their remuneration. They are not paid like their counterparts in the industry. A pilot who is a captain goes home with about N6 million, the inspector’s salary may not be up to a quarter of that. This encourages corruption. The main problem is that if you are corrupt in aviation it could cost lives,” Sanusi said.

On travelling overseas to inspect aircraft, the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) said, “if we copy countries with advanced aviation system as we are inclined to do, we should also look at how they inspect their aircraft.”

“You don’t have to send inspectors to travel to inspect aircraft. If you have approved MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) where the aircraft is taken for maintenance, you don’t have to send an inspector. You give specifications and if these are not met when the aircraft is brought back, you report the MRO facility to the Civil Aviation Authority of that country and then blacklist the facility.

“The continuous airworthiness of an airplane lies in the operator. NCAA oversees that the operator does the right thing and sanction you when you do not do the right thing. NCAA gives you bill for everything they do for you and you pay. In addition, in every ticket sold they take 5 per cent; yet, the inspector still demands that the operator pay him for flight ticket per diem.

“The whole process of firing people and bringing others into the same corrupt environment cannot change anything. Airlines generate a lot of revenue for the agencies but it is wrong for the Federal Government to think the aviation industry has a lot of money and see the sector as profit making industry. This will increase cost of services and cost of movement. Aviation is an enabler. If you are canvassing for investors to come into your country to invest; it is by air that they will travel to the closest place they want to invest. If you don’t have local flight network, when the foreign airline brings him into the country, he will not know how to travel to where he wants to invest. He will not like to travel by road. So, air transport enables other sectors of the economy,” Sanusi said.

Arm-twisting

Another airline senior executive told THISDAY that NCAA creates tough situations to arm-twist airlines.

“Sometimes, they give contradictory directives, issuing two memos on the same subject with different directives and signed by two different persons with dates indicating one week apart. NCAA inspectors are not supposed to travel overseas for aircraft inspection because there is nothing they do overseas they cannot do in Nigeria. This is because aircraft inspection is about documentation. The inspector will just look at the document. If it is on maintenance, he will inspect the sign off of every check by the maintenance organisation that checked the aircraft,” the official said.

Safe Airspace

However, despite the hiccups and controversies, industry stakeholder and Chairman/CEO of Qwikio West Africa Limited, Dr Alex Nwuba, said Nigeria airspace remained safe.

“Nigerian aviation is one of the safest in the world with the Civil Aviation Authority, which is one of the most diligent. There is no such thing as a 100 per cent safe aviation industry. There will be incidents and unfortunately, accidents, doors will pop, landing gears will collapse, birds will enter into engines and mechanical parts will fail, what is worth noting is the frequency and recurrence. Generally, and of deeper concern, is to watch for patterns with specific operators which is a call for investigation, not to punish but to prevent.  Old airplanes do not cause accidents, people who fail to live by the regulations and more importantly those who have a culture of non-compliance with the rules, cause accidents. It is statistically safer to fly than to drive, but one never knows when an air accident will happen, but certainly not often. There are tools and processes to check when an accident is likely to happen, and often shows signs ahead,” he said.

No doubt, the Minister has stirred the hornet’s nest, but hopefully the new management team at NCAA will cleanse the agency of corruption.