The Commander, Presidential Air Fleet, Air Vice Marshal Abubakar Abdullahi, has revealed why it is difficult to maintain the presidential aircrafts.
Abdullahi, while lamentinh the high cost of maintaining the aircraft under his unit, also said the aircrafts are now being underfunded, warning of the safety implications.
According to The PUNCH, he made this disclosure to the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence on Friday.
According to him, the reduction of the proposed Overhead Cost proposed by PAF, by the Budget Office of the Federation under the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, will further make it difficult to maintain the presidential fleet.
The PUNCH had previously reported exclusively on November 27, 2022, that PAF was owing money to a number of service providers for various upgrades made to the fleet’s 10 aircraft to ensure that they were airworthy. Some installations on the aircraft had once more been delayed to 2023 due to a lack of funding.
In his defense budget presentation to the National Assembly, Abdullahi had also bemoaned the fact that only N1.5 billion of the proposed N4.5 billion had been set aside for aircraft maintenance.
The PUNCH had previously reported that in just eight years, the budgetary allocation to the PAF had increased by 121%.
The Commander, who was represented by the Fleet Operations Officer, Ahmed Dari, said that although a budget of N18,767,393,235 was proposed in 2021, only N12,550,18,732 was approved in the Appropriations Act, and as of December 2021, N10,907,642,492 had been released.
When the committee went to the PAF base in Abuja on Thursday evening, the Commander, who was represented by Ahmed Dari, the Fleet Operations Officer, said that a budget of N18,767,393,235 was proposed for 2021, but only N12,550,18,732 was approved in the Appropriation Act and N10,907,642,492 had been spent as of December 2021.
According to Abdullahi, the fleet requested N19,479,313,645 in 2022, but the passed budget approved N12,476,607,142 instead. He also noted that as of November 2022, the total releases to the PAF consisted of 99.83 percent of personnel costs, 94 percent of overhead costs, and 99.99 percent of capital costs, totaling N11.13 billion, or 98.07 percent of the total fund approved.
Abdullahi stated that the PAF requires N15,522,357,626 in total for the year 2023, of which N438,571,562 will go toward personnel costs, N11,641,170,764 will go toward overhead costs, and N3,442,615,300 will go toward capital expenditure.
He partly said, “Please note that the shortfall in the Overhead Cost usually affects aircraft maintenance activities in the fleet. The inadequacy of this provision was brought to the attention of the respected committee as it has always been during the budget defence and oversight visit.
“I wish to bring to your attention that aircraft maintenance, which accounts for 46 per cent of the overall budget proposal, is an integral part of the Overhead Cost. Consequently, the shortfall of the Overhead greatly affected aircraft maintenance activities in the fleet. Some mandatory upgrades were carried out on a credit basis, on the fleet’s longstanding relationship with maintenance companies, while others have been moved to the year 2023 budget.
“This committee may wish to note that the quality of aircraft maintenance conducted is directly proportional to flight safety and it is critical to the importance of safe operations in the fleet. It is important for this committee to note that for successive years, the fleet has been grossly underfunded which has made it difficult to operate. From the fleet records, debts from preceding years are usually carried over to the following year and this has become the tradition.
“Permit me to also state that most of these debts are owned by service providers overseas. Considering that over 85 per cent of the fleet expenditure is forex, the actual budget figure in dollars is further diminished.
“It is important to note that the average age of the presidential air fleet aircraft is 11 years and in aviation, maintenance increases proportionately with the age of the aircraft. Based on the fleet experience, the cost of maintaining each aircraft ranges between $1.5m to $4.5m depending on the level of maintenance.
“Additionally, the year 2023 is an election year, which translates to more missions and space requests for the aircraft due to increased usage.” he said.
