NIGERIA MASTERWEB DAILY NEWS

*TRACON: "We've fulfilled all righteousness in project execution" says Thales of France

By Lateef Lawal

The contractor that handled the Total Radar Coverage of Nigeria(TRACON) project has officially reacted to the eyebrows raised by the committee set up by the Minister of Aviation which became the subject of controversy with a newspaper alleging N13 billion fraud. 

However, contrary to the alleged fraud, Thales of France that handled the project in a response cleared the Management of Nigerian Airspace Management Agency of any under-hand dealings as all that were expected to be supplied as components for the continued maintenance of the equipment supplied and installed were duly supplied to the later according to what were contained in the contact agreement signed by all parties involved. ( Continues below..... )

Photo Above: Nigeria Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze Oduah

In addition, instead of the alleged over payment, NAMA /FG is yet to settle the 4QTR payment for 2011. Thales response dated November 8, 2011 was consequent upon issues raised by the Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Adaeze-Oduah after receiving the Ministerial Committee's report set up in September to look into certain issues raised in the report. In the forward to to the response, endorsed by Mr John Armley, the Country Director(Nigeria) of Thales International of France, speccially highlighted the following points contained in the full response-that is-

*That Thales is extremely dismayed at your(Minister's)serious comment that records of payment are not commensurate with the services rendered under the TSSA.All services have been rendered in full and paymentsreceived by Thales are entirely in accordance with the Contract, and have been made against a "Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of the job" issued by NAMA every quarter.

*All contracted training has been provided.However,Thales is conscious of the on-going operational needs of NAMA and is fully supportive of any furtherr training that NAMA may require for the on-going operation of TRACON.

*We agree with your assessment that the Back-up or Recovery Center is not required for satisfactory performance of TRACON, however, given the unfortunately increasing threat levels and security considerations facing the world, the provision of additional redundancy and indeed disaster recovery capabilities is a natural progression to provide further redundancy measures to further secure the system in Nigeria.

Following the above observations by Thales, it went ahead to give the breakdown of its response, item by item to clear any misconception on any aspect of the TRACON Project. They are as highlighted below:

MINISTRY: The Technical Support Service Agreement(TSSA) was executed on 20th November,2009 for the training of staff and maintenance of TRACON, while the warranties of some of the sites were still valid.

Thales: No action required.NAMA did not pay antthing over and above during the warranty period for these sites.In fact,NAMA secured a substantial discount on the Support Services Agreement(SSA).In addition, it should be clearly noted that, the levels of service provided under the SSA goes far beyond warranty service levels.

MINISTRY: The TSSA is not detailed enough on the number of Engineers to be trained and the quantity of spares parts to be supplied.

Thales: No action required.The TSSA is very clear on the subject : refer TSSA Appendix 2 Paragraph 2.7 Training and 2.8 Spare Parts(see copies of in Annex to this current document).All training is up to date under the TSSA.All spare parts have been delivered.

MINISTRY: Only one generator was supplied to each of the Secondary Radaar Stations instead of two as provided for in the schedule of supply of the main TRACON Contract Agreement.

Thales: No action required.All appropriate generators have been delivered as per the contact.In the case where NEPA power is insufficient, NAMA is taking steps to ensure correct mains power or alternative power to the sites.

MINISTRY: There is no evidence of supply of two numbers of backup VHF RADIOS for Lagos and Kano as stipulated under the scope of schedule of the main TRACON Contract Agreement.

Thales: No action required.Thales delivered the integrated radio positions which can be seen and inspected on site.

MINSTRY: The Chloride UPS and Automatic Voltage Regulators(AVRs) provided by Thales for the TRACON project are not suitable for Nigerian environment.NAMA has been replacing these UPS & AVRs at a high cost despite provision of over EUR 700,000 as maintenance charges under the TSSA.

Thales: No action required. The UPSs and AVRs delivered are suitable for the application. Only one of the UPSs has been replaced by NAMA and that was before the SSA was in place.All UPSs and AVRs supplied under the contract are covered under the TSSA.It should be noted that the cited figure of 700,000 Euros covers the support of all of the ancilliary systems provided by Thales, including the UPSs, over the full 5 years period of the SSA.

MINISTRY: The TRACON Simulator in Lagos has remained unserviceable since 2007 and the software is obsolete.

Thales: No action required.The SIM is operational.The simulator software is not obsolete and is indeed the same as the operational software.The SIM hardware and software are of course fully covered by the TSSA.

MINISTRY: The Obubra Radar Station had been operating epileptically and has stopped working in February,2011 despite the validity of the warranty till May, 2011.

Thales: No action required. The Obubra radar is operational and any failures are of course covered by the TSSA.The station had been out of service since the accidental inversion of power phases on the site but has now been rectified.

MINISTRY: The other Secondary Radar Stations at Talata Mafara, Maiduguri,Numan and Ilorin are working intermittently, attributed to power supply.

Thales: No action required by Thales.Thales has offered our full support to assist NAMA in the definition of requirements for the TRACON equipment in order that NAMA can implement an appropriate solution.

MINISTRY: The Flight Strip Printers & Billing Management System(BMS) in Lagos and Kano have never worked since installation.

Thales: Strip Printers-No action required.The strip printers in the centers are working as required. BMS-NO ACTION REQUIRED.One BMS was delivered, tested and accepted in Lagos under phase 1 of the main contract. No BMS was required to be delivered to Kano.The BMS is functioning correctly.

MINISTRY: The records of payment to Thales are not commensurate with the services rendered under the TSSA.

Thales: All services required under the SSA have been provided in full. The patments received by Thales are entirely in accordance with the Contract and have been made against a "Certificate of Satisfactory Completion of the Job" issued by NAMA every quarter.Thales is awaiting payment for the 4th Quarter of 2011.

MINISTRY: Training-VARIOUS COMMENTS

Thales: Thales is fully supportive of NAMA in their training requirements and are capable of establishing and delivering all training and means related to TRACON, as well as the broader training requirements that NAMA has as a significant ANSP.

MINISTRY: Back-Up or Recovery Center- the satisfactory performance of TRACON does not require a back up or recovery center for civil aviation purposes.

Thales: Indeed, the TRACON program as delivered performs perfectly satisfactorily.Nevertheless, given the unfortunately increasing threat levels and security considerations facing our changing world, the provision of disaster recovery capabilities is a natural progression to provide additional security measures to further safeguard the TRACON system and operations in Nigeria.Thales would be delighted to meet the Ministry and NAMA to review the requirement in detail in order that we may jointly investigate the provision of a solution in accordance with your specific needs.

MINISTRY: The Rescue Coordination Centers at Lagos and Kano have never worked.

Thales: No action required. The Rescue Coordination Centers at both Lagos and Kano delivered under the Contract are working.The RCCs are of course fully covered by the TSSA.

MINISTRY: The Virtual Private Network(VPN) which will enable the remote maintenance of EUROCAT-C by Thales from France is not functioning.

Thales: No action required from Thales.The VPN is set up and ready for use. NAMA is finalising the ADSL Internet subscription required to put the VPN into full operation.

MINISTRY: According to Thales records, only 96 Enginneers and Air Traffic Controllers received training instead of 162 as specified in the main TRACON Contract Agreement.

Thales: No action required. All training has been provided.

MINISTRY: There is need to update the games(software) for the Simulator for the training of Air Traffic Controllers.

Thales: Action underway.Advanced Operator Training(including games generation) and Computer Based Training(CBT) System Upgrade agreed.The ATC training is scheduled within the next month and has already been approved by NAMA management

Lateef Lawal (NigerianAviationNews)

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