The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) says it no longer engages third party services in the procurement of equipment, but now deals directly with foreign governments, thereby ending long era of missing equipment.
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar made this known at a one-day Transparency International (TI)-facilitated NAF Leadership Workshop at the NAF
Headquarters in Abuja.
The NAF says ths is in order to ensure transparency and integrity, and as well align with international best practices.
Recall that shortly after the inauguration of President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, a panel was setup to look into the arms procurement between 2007 and 2015.
The panel indicted Former National Security
adviser (NSA) Sambo Dasuki of an alleged $2.1 billion arms deal.
The panel also recommended the trial of some former Service Chiefs, senior serving and retired military officers, who were alleged to have diverted funds meant for the procurement of arms.
At the workshop, Abubakar narrated that shortly after assuming office in July, 2015, he had established a Procurement Directorate, charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the procurement process in the NAF, was transparent and aligns with international best practices.
“In the past 2 years, and since my assumption of office, the Nigerian Air Force has made stringent efforts to align itself with the anti-corruption posture of the current administration.
“In this regard, shortly after I assumed office, we established the Directorate of Procurement that was not existing before 2015. This directorate has been given added impetus in the performance of its assignment.
“Furthermore, in order to avoid the mistakes of the past, we have over this period developed a procurement process that is in tandem with the extant laws of the Federation of Nigeria. This ranges from the identification of needs, to the award as well as inspection and acceptance of procured hardware.
“As a matter of service policy, the NAF has adopted and follows the core principles of international procurement to include, determination of the need for the service with our core operational requirements, enhance d specification process, to ensure that the hardware services meet the intended specification… indeed, the era of missing equipment inspection tours…, is no longer in the Nigerian Air Force under my watch
“All these efforts are made not only to emphasise the need for strict adherence to procurement process, but also to ensure zero-tolerance for corruption in the procurement process. The need for capacity building,can never be overemphasised.”
Abubakar explained that an earlier survey conducted by TI, which seemingly indicted the defence procurement process, covered the years 2014 and 2015.
“Let me state here clearly that the period covered by the index, that is 2014-2015, coincided with a period when the NAF used to procure its equipment and material through a NAF Tenders Board; a procurement which was hitherto adjudged as being not sufficiently transparent and not in consonance with international best practices.
“In addition, the NAF is vigorously following through on the Government’s directive to deal directly with foreign governments that is (Government to Government), Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and authorized Equipment Maintenance Repair Organizations (MROs) in the acquisition of spares and/or maintenance of NAF equipment rather than with some third-party organizations.”
In his introductory remark, the leader of the TI team, Ian Andrews, emphasised the need for transparency in the defence and procurement sector.
Andrews, while recalling the damage that corruption in some countries’ defence had done to society, said “Corruption in defence and security sector is dangerous; it is divisive;it is wasteful “Corruption destroys institutions of the state;fuels violent extremism.”
He said corruption is a challenge to every country in the world.
Stella Enenche, Abuja
