BY TORDUE SALEM
ABUJA —The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation yesterday queried the Minister of Aviation, Fidelia Njeze, over an alleged non-spending of N22 billion by her ministry.

The House of Representatives Committee on Aviation sought explanation on why the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, could not utilise N11 billion it generated internally out of a budget N22 billion..

Rep. Darlington Okereke(PDP/Ebonyi), who posed the question, demanded to know why there was a “drop” in the ministry’s 2011 budget proposal from N45 billion in 2010 to N27 billion.

On his part, Rep. Florence Akinwale(PDP/Ekiti) demanded to know why N258.3 million released to the ministry, out of the N297 million appropriated for execution of aviation projects in Ekiti State, was not used to execute the projects and asked for an explanation on what had happened to the money.

The minister explained that N4.5 billion of the N22 billion was meant for the second runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, adding that the contract was terminated.

Noting that the Ministry was in the process of resolving the Private Partnership aspect of the project, she also explained that the decline in the Ministry’s budget proposal was due to what was provided for the Ministry by the Budget Office due to lean resources.

Rep. Haliru Mustapha(PDP/Kaduna) raised the dispute between FAAN and NIMET over sharing of generated revenue and urged the Minister to intervene, so FAAN could remit NIMET’s own percentage of the revenue to it.

Rep. Bethel Amadi (PDP/Imo), Chairman of the Committee, however, commended the Ministry for its performance in the outgoing year, saying that some of the agencies did better than the previous year.

He said there was the need to priotize the completion of new airport terminals as they will enhance  economic activities at the airports.

He said there were visible loopholes in the process of revenue generation of the Ministry’s agencies and that the state of affairs of some facilities at airports, such as conveniences, especially at the airport in Abuja be addressed to save the nation embarrassment.

Commending the Ministry for achieving Federal Aviation Administration’s category 1 certification, Amadi urged her to address the mix between international and domestic passengers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport because of the security risk attendant to it.