NAMA Denies N13bn Fraud

The Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), has denied the allegation of N13 billion fraud in the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria (TRACON) project as contained in a ministerial committee’s report against the agency.

The report stated that vital components of the 66,500,670 Euros (N13.99 billion) Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria were not supplied at the time of installation of the equipments and many other components installed had never functioned since the project started in 2003.

NAMA’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Supo Atobatele said the N13 billion allegedly spent on the project was a misrepresentation.

He said the story was evidently fraught with lies, describing it as the latest ploy by antagonists of the government’s transformation agenda to continue to embarrass the management of the agency and the Federal Government of Nigeria.

According to him, the TRACON project was awarded to Messrs Thales of France on April 7, 2003, at the cost of 66,500,870 Euros.

“The TRACON project was multi-tasking in view of the several deliverables of the project which include but not limited to the provision of co-located Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR) and Monopause Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR), EU-ROCAT C Air Traffic Management System, Voice Communication and Control Switch (VCCS), Emergency VHF, Voice Recording System, Fibre Optics, VSAT network and other ancillaries like UPS, Power System, AMF etc.

“It is important to note that though Thales, as the lead contractor, was responsible for the system design and project coordination, the TRACON project itself was implemented by a consortium of global and market leaders in Air Traffic Management (ATM) technology.

“The Radar and Eurocat Air Traffic Management Systems came from Thales Air System of France, Voice Switches from Thales and Frequentis AG of Austria, VHF Radios from Park Air Systems of UK, Fibre Optics from SAGEM of France, VSAT equipment from ND SatCom of Germany, Power Systems, back-ups and an other ancillaries.

“It is pertinent to note that the execution of the co-located PSR/MSSR is a project on its own in some countries and Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world that have embarked on a project of this nature with several deliverables at once”, he added.

Reward Akwu