The Managing Director, Federal Airport Authority of
Nigeria (FAAN), Saleh Dunoma, has been queried over alleged under-remittances
by the agency into the Federation Account despite huge funds generated by the
agency at airports across Nigeria.
The Chairman, House Committee on Aviation, Hon.
Nkiruka Onjeocha, who spoke at the budget defence held for agencies in the
aviation sector on Thursday was particularly as to why the agency which collects internally
generated revenues in dollars still has a deficit budget.
She also queried the reason for under- remittance
of naira despite collection of dollar from operators.
Onjeocha said the agency has collected N58.7billion
internally generated revenue (IGR) in the 2018 fiscal year and remitted only N1
billion into the Federation Account which she said is under-remittance.
She bemoaned the poor state of infrastructure at
some airports, especially the Murtala Mohammed International Airports Lagos and
Akanu Ibiam International Airport in Enugu State, and mandated the FAAN boss to
give airports facelift in the yuletide period.
Dunoma, in his response to the allegation of
under-remittance, pointed fingers at state governments.
According to him, state governments that partnered
federal government to construct the airports are collecting revenues from these
airports.
He assured the committee that his agency has
started rehabilitation of dilapidated infrastructure at Murtala Muhammad
International Airport, Lagos, in phases.
He promised the committee that the rehabilitation
work would soon start at other airports across the country, adding however that
the slow pace of work is due to delay in the release of appropriated funds in
previous budget.
Threatening to give FAAN zero budgetary allocation in
2019, a technical committee was set up to investigate the issues as well as the
huge debt profiles before it can present its 2019 budget.
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