Nkili rubbishes Osih's comment on plane deal

Robert Nkili, Minister of Transport has discredited statements by Joshua Osih, SDF vice National Chairman that 25 billion FCFA vanished in a deal in which government claims it bought two Majestic Art planes, MA60 Txj-Sd and MA60 Tjx-Se from the China Aviation Industry Corporation I, at the cost of 34 billion FCFA.

The transport minister stated in an interview to The Cameroon Journal that “all those people who are talking about money disappearing and retro commission in that deal are not well informed.

They base their arguments on documents they got from an earlier negotiation which government made with AVIC X’ian between 2004 and 2006, but there was another negotiation in 2011 which led to the purchase of these planes.”

Nkili who had told parliamentarians in the past that he was not involved in negotiations, said, “Now I have documents which I can show you as proof of negotiations between Cameroon and AVIC, and the negotiations they had with the government of Gabon. Though it is unacceptable to show documents concerning a foreign country, I would show you because this is about a commercial transaction.”

Joshua Osih had stated that he visited the factory that assembled the planes which were delivered to Cameroon at the 102 Military Airbase in Douala last week. He insisted each of the two planes, cost 4.5 billion each and that two would cost about 12 or 13 billion FCFA if one had to add spare parts around them, without which, both planes would cost the government nothing more than 9 billion FCFA.

Osih had equally compared the amount paid by Cameroon for both planes to what the Gabonese government paid to AVIC. The transport minister admitted to Cameroon Journal that it is possible Gabon, as a communist state at the time its government was negotiating with AVIC, might have received special consideration from the Chines Corporation.

“Besides, we realized that the MA60 planes were modern aircrafts with rare spare parts. Gabon negotiated and got a warehouse where they could get spare parts. We did same and now we have a warehouse for aircraft spare parts in Douala. We would not have to rush to Gabon each time we need to repair or carry out maintenance works on our planes,” Nkili said.

Quizzed on how the prices of an aircraft could triple within less than 10 years the minister said “with the global economy changing, prices of fuel and everything else are changing by the day. Besides, what we paid also included the cost of spare parts and training for some technicians.”

Osih had said the Cameroon Airlines Corporation, CAMAIR-co did not ask for the planes which the minister said will be used for local and regional commercial flights.

Osih did not only call it a bad deal going by the price, but value wise, he described the planes as “flying coffins” and added, they are internationally known to be unsafe.

To Osih’s claim, the Nkili said he just returned from a trip to the International Civil Aviation Organization in Montreal, Canada, where he requested for a team of experts to visit Cameroon and certify the planes before they are put to use.

“I invite you to come here (transport ministry) on April 22 and meet the experts. They will be here with operators of airliners in Cameroon. Even our airports are not certified and the team from Montreal will decide which airports are unsafe. They will decide whether or not the planes are safe to fly. Any airport denied certification will no longer be used, even by international airliners.” Nkili added.

All attempts to get Osih to confirm whether he based his arguments on an outdated arrangement or not were futile. In the meantime, his petition for a parliamentary inquiry on the plane deal was blocked in parliament by CPDM MPs. As an option, the SDF is said to be contemplating a judicial inquiry.

The new Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon, Wei Wenhua vehemently denied to comment on the deal. He said that he is new and knows nothing about the transaction.