AIB seeks increase in ticket sales charge to 10%

Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) Felix Abali has called on the federal government to increase its Ticket Sales Charge (TSA) from three percent to ten percent, adding that lack of funds has prevented the agency from carrying out its duties as a responsible accident investigator.

The Federal Government statutorily gives three per cent of total revenue made on tickets to the Accident Investigation Bureau, (AIB).

Abali said this at the bureau’s headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, MMA, Lagos during the visit of the House Ad-Hoc Committee on Non-Oil Revenue and Remittances.

This fund is given to the agency for training of their personnel and to run the agency. Over the years, the allocations have become insufficient to take care of their operations.

Abali added that AIB as parts of its succession plan required special funding to operate and hoped that the committee would use its good office to push for the upward review of the ticket sales charge for the agency.

He added, “For emergency and high profile accidents, AIB requires an emergency or special account to meet this need. Malaysia MH 370 and TWA 800 accidents, among others are apt examples. Stakeholders and public awareness campaign requires adequate funding. We request for support in this area.

“Accident investigation bodies are not expected to charge for their services and so the opportunity to generate independent revenue is almost nil. Based on Annex 13 of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Manual, there should be special fund dedicated to catre for any major accidents. It has been very difficult to provide and keep this fund since every unspent money goes back to the Federal Treasury by 31st December of every financial year.”

  Abali also appealed to the Federal Government to exempt its technical personnel from the current embargo placed on foreign training since 2015.

Abali explained that accident investigation was a specialised area that required special training that are obtainable mostly overseas.

The Federal Government had in early 2015 suspended foreign training and international travels by Departments and Agencies (MDAs)

The government had said that embargo on training and international travels was one of the cost-saving measures introduced following recent developments in the international oil market, which has affected the revenue stream of government.

Since the directive, which was announced by Danladi kifasi, Head of Service, in February 2015, technical personnel in the nation’s aviation industry had not been able to embark on foreign training to boost their technical knowledge.

Kifasi declared that AIB needed to urgently meet the need for qualified personnel to take-over from the crop of ageing technical personnel who he said were currently on contract, stressing that huge fund was required for manpower development, majority of which is done overseas.

Ifeoma Okeke