Panel indicts NCAA on surveillance, oversight functions

THE three-man Committee on Foreign-Registered Privately-Operated Aircraft Operations in Nigeria has found the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) weak in the discharge of its surveillance and oversight responsibilities to airline operators. 

   According to the panel’s chairman and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Aviation Reforms, Capt. Victor Iriobe, “the review revealed major gaps in the NCAA surveillance and enforcement oversight on the operators,” which “showed weak enforcement of the regulations and conditions of licensing and authorizations of foreign-registered privately-owned aircraft operators in Nigeria.”

   Iriobe said the committee aimed to investigate the operations of all such aircraft that were issued Flight Operations Clearance Certificate (FOCC) and Maintenance Clearance Certificate (MCC) to operate instead of the NCAA authorization for private operations within Nigeria. 

   Submitting the report Tuesday in Abuja to the Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka, Iriobe said the perpetrators deprive the Federal Government of necessary revenue by evading all taxes and statutory charges, while such illegal operations have both safety and commercial implications for NCAA and the Federal Government.

   He noted further that all FOCC/MCC and AOC Ops Specs Part G holders were invited to the panel, adding that NCAA database shows that 51 aircraft with FOCC and MCC operate under 27 operators, alongside 21 aircraft on “Part G” operating under six AOC holders.

   Iriobe disclosed that a major discovery is NCAA’s placement of inappropriate foreign registered aircraft category (Private/Non-Commercial) in the Part G OpSpecs of some domestic operators, which contravention Nig. CARs 9.1.1.6 (a) (4).

   Most non-commercial flights (PNCF) certificate holders, who have FOCC and MCC, he said, engage in commercial charters known globally as “grey market” operations.

   “It is well known that grey market operations in general aviation are active in all global markets and in Nigeria, and their activity is believed to undercut as much as 45 percent of commercial operations, as it is very difficult to catch the perpetrators and provide proof of violation.”

   However, the committee advised the minister and NCAA to, effective March 1, 2015, all foreign-registered private category listed on the OpSpecs Part G of some AOC holders must be removed from the status, while the aircraft operations should remain grounded until NCAA approves an alternative operational status for them.