The Nigerian Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) on Thursday commended the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for implementing the Treasury Single Account (TSA) in the aviation sector.
NATCA’s president, Mr Victor Eyaru, gave the commendation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
Eyaru said the introduction of the TSA had helped to reduce fraudulent activities and restored sanity to the sector.
He said: “I will give the government kudos for introducing TSA into the aviation sector.
“Without the TSA, the kind of fraud exposed in the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) would not have been possible.”
According to him, the arrest of some former directors of the agency by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged fraud, is a step in the right direction.
“The government should fast track their prosecution so that those that are guilty are punished, while those found not guilty by the law can be allowed to return to work,’’ Eyaru said.
The NATCA president, therefore, appealed to the government to appoint a substantive managing director for NAMA, following the ongoing prosecution of the former MD, Mr Ibrahim Abdusalam.
He said NATCA would continue to support the government in its quest to eliminate corruption in the sector and to make Nigeria an aviation hub.
Eyaru also called for the restructuring of NAMA, to enable the agency live up to its statutory function of improving the safety of Nigeria’s airspace.
“We believe that NAMA should be repositioned. If you look at NAMA, for example, the Act establishing the agency provides for three directorates, but what they are operating now is more than seven directorates.
“So that means funds are being wasted and the agency is operating an illegality because the act establishing it does not support the creation of those directorates.
“If the government wants to make any reform, they should first of all revert NAMA to the three statutory directorates.
“By doing this, a lot of money will be saved for the agency to undertake other critical projects and manpower training,’’ he added.
