MANAGING Director Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Captain Rabiu Yadudu says the airports managers have moved forward from the Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques (SITA) brouhaha stating that its 10-year contract with the information and technology service providers expired last year.
He made this known while speaking on the Red Carpet of the25th edition of LAAC Annual Conference & Awards held at Sheraton Hotel, Lagos on Wednesday, 28th July, 2020 stating that all FAAN wanted was to improve the process and that was what brought about the challenges.
According to him, for now FAAN has begun taking delivery of equipment for RESA of France the company replacing SITA, which according to him will provide services to all five international airports not two.
He said,” I believe FAAN has already moved forward. What brought about the whole issue is that we decided to improve the whole process. The 10-year SITA contract for Lagos and Abuja airports expired last year and FAAN decided to improve the process. Even while the SITA contract ran, some services were not rendered by SITA.
“Nonetheless, we ran an open procurement process for the service to be renewed. This type of service is run by only two or three companies in the world. We advertised, two companies responded, and SITA didn’t respond creditably. They gave foreign documents. Naturally, the one that responded with our own documents won. It is a long history but it is all behind us.
“The new contract and the project have already been approved by Mr. President. We have improved the process from two airports to now cover all the five international airports – Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kano and Enugu. At the end of the day, it is going to be better for all of us.
“We have already started taking delivery of equipment from RESA of France. FAAN went with the right procurement process and we got a better deal. I believe by the middle of next month, we shall be ready to move forward, he said
TBI Africa had found out during the heat of the challenge which led to manual check-in and a lot of hardship to travelers that when SITA was operating they were not providing all the services on their contract and said they would give FAAN a refund but insisted on service provision not cash, tying the airport managers to their service.
It was learnt that SITA did not provide Baggage Reconciliation System for Abuja, flight information Display System (FIDS) for Abuja, self-service kiosk for Abuja and then the Local Departure Control Data which were part of their contract
A highly placed source in FAAN revealed that the deal RESA gave meant that FAAN had licensing and does not need to be paying money every month as the previous contract was with them paying $307,000 every month for just two airports.
The deal meant FAAN would pay one off for servicing instead of $400,000 every month averagely.
On policies and conflicts with operators, Yadudu said there was hardly any as it all bores down to understanding.
He said,” I believe there is hardly any policy that is in conflict with operators. It is a question of understanding. The policies and implementation are all the same, it is interpretation that may be different. Usually, it is that interpretation, but you will find that you will all arrive at the same decision (if the interpretation is right).
“The same intention is being serviced. But if you have the wrong interpretation, then we have to agree when the regulator tells you that your interpretation is wrong. It will always go the way of the regulator. The interpretation and absolute understanding lies with the regulator. So, if there is a conflict, it is for the regulator to clear the misunderstanding. But there is no fundamental misunderstanding or conflict between policies and what the stakeholders want.
