Professional Associations in the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA), have frown on the 40% deduction from the internally generated revenue (IGR) of the Agency.
They say this is having an unbearable consequence on the Agency’s core mandate in the areas of operations and technical services provision and therefore seek a downward review of the deduction.
This is contained in a communique issued at the end of an emergency meeting conveyed to address recent appointment and deployment in the NAMA, signed by the presidents of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), National Association of Air Traffic Engineers (NAAE), Aeronautical Information Management Association of Nigeria (AIMAN) and National Air Traffic Communication Association of Nigeria (NACAN).
The Professional bodies called for caution and urged the new government to address the problems of air navigation service provision in Nigeria to ensure safety within the country’s airspace.
The communique also urged the government as a matter of urgency to review the recent creation of directorates and appointment into the agency outside the provisions of the act that established NAMA.
“It must also be reiterated that qualified staff of the agency are given first priority before bringing in an outsider to take up any career-tied appointments in the agency”.
Amongst the demands of the bodies are, the immediate release of the negotiated NAMA’s Staff Condition of Service (COS) in order to forestall further industrial action and periodic and traditional mandatory training and re-training of technical and operational professional staff of the agency which has been impaired lately by paucity of funds.
The meeting requested that the professional responsibility of the agency as the country’s safety lub must be respected and provided with appropriation to be captured in annual budgetary allocation.
Writing by Nosa Aituamen; Editing by Chinasa Ossai and Annabel Nwachukwu