The House of Representatives investigating the controversial N255 million armoured cars for the aviation minister, Stella Oduah, said the cars its members found on inspection, were not the ones listed as having been imported for at the cost.
It also emerged the cars were imported as part of 300 cars ordered by the Lagos State Government, for which import duty was waived by the Ministry of Finance. The committee inspected the cars on Tuesday at the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) office in Abuja.
The NCAA bought the cars for the minister, a contract that has stirred intense controversy as it has emerged that the contract was not approved in the budget and was not in line with government procurement.
The Ministry of Aviation and the NCAA have claimed the law was followed. The car supplier, Coscharis, also denied allegation that the cost was inflated.
At the second hearing of the House on Wednesday, First Bank, which financed the purchase said it was informed by the NCAA that the cars were meant for management officials of the NCAA, and that it granted N643 million as loan for 54 cars. The bank claimed all procurement laws were followed before it emerged as the financier.
The House committee insisted the contract was against the law.
But a fresh layer to the controversy was added to the controversy as it emerged the cars were imported as part of 300 cars by Coscharis under the name of Lagos State Government, and that no import duty was paid on them.
The Nigerian Customs said the Minister of Finance approved a waiver ofN10.1 million for the cars.
Deputy Comptroller General of Customs, Manasa Jatau, said the car dealer firm, Coscharis, also obtained an End User certificate from the office of the National Security Adviser (NSA), a clearance required for all armoured cars imported into the country.
To obtain the two waivers, Coscharis claimed the two cars were ordered by the Lagos state government as part of 300 vehicles for the National Sports festival it hosted in 2012, the Nigerian Customs revealed.
“The importer did not refuse to pay duty. They had a waiver from the minister of finance,” Mr Jatau said. He said the waiver was for one year and extended to when the cars were imported.
Customs said it did not have the powers to know what the true situation was, although it admitted it is empowered to enforce the law if became known that an item for which waiver was given, was later used for another purpose that stated.
Coscharis reacts
But the car firm, Coscharis, denied that its claim that the cars were meant for the Lagos State Government, was untrue or meant to deceive the government.
Cosmas Maduka, said every due process by law was followed and that the controversy over the purchase is “politically motivated”.
The Chief Executive of Coscharis, Cosmas Maduka, said it was a usual practice that during big government events such as the sports festival, the company reaches out to help by providing cars to the government on a condition that the government grants waivers for it to import new cars to replace the ones offered out.
In this case, the firm claimed, since the beneficiary of the 300 Sports festival cars was Lagos state government, the state bore the name of the beneficiary. But under the arrangement, when the cars are returned, they are sold out to customers.
“To the best of my knowledge, we followed all due process. We were interviewed by SSS. We were interviewed by the National Security Adviser. Every due process by law was followed,” said Mr Maduka.
He said the controversy over the purchase is “politically motivated”.
But the House committee said that was untrue that evidences before it, including letters between the company and the National Security Adviser’s office, and the NCAA, made it clear the firm deliberately deceived the concerned authorities.
The committee also disagreed strongly with the company’s claim that its prices for the cars were in order. The two cars were purchased at N255 million, an amount said to be enough for at least four of such cars.
Coscharis said it did not inflate the cost and that the manufacturers’ price for the BMW brand, armoured, was 418 thousand Euro (about N91.3 million) factory for BMW no shipping, taxes. Other charges took the figure to N127 million, the firm said.
But a committee member said the claim was false as they had received quotations from an American firm for the same cars for N42.4 million each.
The committee also said the company sent different sums for the cars to the NSA office and the NCAA, another indication there was a deliberate effort to deceive and inflate costs.
Coscharis said it was the NSA office that told them the price it quoted earlier was lower than sold, higher and they said they had no waiver to pay, hence the difference.
Coscharis said prices for armoured cars are different between US and Europe.
Again, the committee said the cars they inspected yesterday are different in terms of chassis number) from those stated in the documents between Coscharis and NCAA.
But Coscharis said since it did not inspect the cars with the House members, it cannot say whether that was the car they delivered to NCAA. The firm insists it has done no wrong.