Presidency Confirms Spending Only N2B To Maintain 10 Aircraft In 5 Months

The Presidency has confirmed that indeed in the last five months, a little above N2 billion has been spent on maintenance of presidential air fleet. It said the amount spent between May, 2015 and now, include salaries and repayment of old debts. There are presently 10 aircraft on the presidential air fleet.

Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement described as “outlandish” that N6 billion  has been expended to maintain the fleet. He described the report on the spending as fictional regretting that it has caused the government a lot of negative reviews especially in the online media.

According to him, “The government is focused on solving the many major issues our country faces in the areas of the economy, corruption and security; yet, almost every week, the Presidency has to also deal with the distractions which do nothing but distract from the task of government.”

Quoting documents obtained from the Operational Office of the Presidential Fleet,  Shehu pointed out that the sum of N2.3 billion was released to the Presidential Air Fleet (PAF) by the office of the Accountant General of the Federation between May and November 2015. “This include releases for personnel cost, overhead and capital expenditure out of the sum of N5, 190,381,386.00 appropriated for PAF on the 2015 budget.

The documents also showed that the sum of N2,127,103,086.66 had so far been expended, leaving a balance of N172,568,912.34 from the amount released. “However, the sum of N149, 062,791.12 was transferred from the PAG’s operation account to the Treasury Single Account, following the President’s recent directive,” he said. He added that the sum of N23, 801,122.17 remains unutilised out of the funds so far released.

“During the period 31 May 2015 till date, the Fleet expended the sum of N1, 358,910,962.75 to settle outstanding liabilities carried over from last year till May 2015. Furthermore, the sum of N500 million was refunded to the office of the National Security Adviser, NSA for financial support rendered to the Fleet prior to release of funds from the OAGF. Thus, the Fleet expended the sum of N449, 081,037.25 within the last months comprising N98, 500,218.00 for operations, N165, 373,176.91 on training and N85, 500,116.75 on personnel medicals and overhead. Additionally, the sum of N99, 715,493.51 was expended on aircraft maintenance, spares, and subscription services required for operations.

“Any of these documents could have been made available had the newspaper reached out to me or to any one of my colleagues. The damage to the image of government and the good management of the Presidential Air Fleet could have been avoided, “he said. The Media aide also put the number of aircraft on the Presidential fleet at 10, not 14 as cited by that report.

He said he decided to give out the inventory in the spirit of openness and transparency instituted by the Buahri administration. PAF-AIRCRAFT INVENTORY

1. 1× 737 BBJ

2. 1× G550

3. 1×G500

4. 2× Falcon 7X

5. 1× HS 4000

6. 2× Agusta139

7. 2× Agusta 101

Total aircraft holdings 10.