Joe Dinga Pefok
17 March 2008
President Paul Biya, in a decree on March 11, dismissed the Provisional Administrator of the Cameroon Airlines, CAMAIR, Paul Ngamo Hamani.
The decision led many to believe that the President was backing the efforts of Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, to dismantle a mafia network in the privatisation process of CAMAIR.
The Post learned that Ngomo, who managed CAMAIR for three years, failed to prepare it for privatisation as his mission stated. He reportedly tried to serve the interest of a mafia group in the privatisation of CAMAIR led by the former Minister of Economy and Finance, Polycarpe Abah Abah.
It was for this reason that Ngamo reportedly failed to collaborate with the officially appointed Liquidator of CAMAIR, Bekolo and Partners (a Douala-based chartered accounting and audit firm). Apparently, the privatisation process of CAMAIR could not effectively advance as the government had hoped.
Mission Of Provisional Administrator
While installing Ngamo as Provisional Administrator of CAMAIR on February 23, 2005, in Douala, the then Minister of Transport, Dakole Daïssala, instructed him to prepare CAMAIR for privatisation/liquidation.
Ngamo, who had a one year mandate, stayed on for three years, with his mandate silently renewed twice. The situation of CAMAIR reportedly moved from bad to worse with its debts mounting and litigations at home and abroad increasing.
On March 3, 2008, the only remaining plane really owned by CAMAIR, the Dja (Boeing 767-300) was seized at Charles de Gaulles International Airport in Paris, by an American company, Ansett, for debts. CAMAIR had reportedly hired two planes from the company and added to its small fleet, but had defaulted several times on the payment of rents.
The Post was told that the Minister of Finance had to reach an agreement with Ansett to pay the debts by instalments before the plane was released. Apparently disgusted with the way things had degenerated at CAMAIR under Ngamo, the government, in an unprecedented move on March 7, ordered that the Dja should suspend international flights.
Decisions Of General Meeting
Immediately after the presidential decree was read over CRTV, police officers acting on the instructions of a Senior State Counsel sealed the offices of CAMAIR. At the end of what was said to be the company's General Assembly meeting on March 14, the Minister of Finance, Lazare Essimi Menye, extended the mandate of the Liquidator of CAMAIR by 12 months.
He, however, said there would be a co-liquidator, who would handle judicial matters about the privatisation, while Bekolo and Partners would be limited to financial matters, which would include calculating the dues of workers.
The Minister also disclosed that a team would be appointed to take care of the management of CAMAIR till it is privatised. Meanwhile, the former Provisional Administrator had been given three months to submit a report on his three years at CAMAIR.
The Mafia
The story about the mafia in CAMAIR privatisation stretches back to January 2006, when the government, following a World Bank prescription launched an international bid for tenders to acquire 51 percent shares in an airline, which the government was to create to replace CAMAIR.
In June, the then Minister of Economy and Finance, Polycarpe Abah Abah, stated in a communiqué that the government had selected a certain First Delta Air Services, comprising SN Brussels and CENAINVEST, as the provisional bid winner.
The Minister named the other companies that failed in the bid as Kenya Airways, Royal Air Maroc, and a private airline company in South Africa. He stated that the government and First Delta Air Services were to sign the transaction documents within ten business days.
But the days passed and even doubled without anything being said or done. Also, Kenya Airways' authorities at a press conference in Nairobi disclosed that they had pulled out of the privatisation process.
Though nobody doubted the fact that SN Brussels is a reputable airline company, many suspected that Abah Abah had a personal interest in the consortium.
Enter The PM
Following the long silence about the signing of the transaction documents between government and First Delta Air Services, Prime Minister, Ephraim Inoni, reportedly drew Biya's attention to a better offer from an American company, which Abah Abah was reportedly struggling to shelve in favour of First Delta Air Services.
The Minister allegedly argued that the American company came late in the privatisation deal and thus should not be considered. But Inoni insisted that it was not too late for the company's offer to be considered, as the company came in when the transaction document was yet to be signed and that it made a better offer.
The Post also learned that First Delta Air Services had offered a meagre FCFA 7 billion to be the majority shareholders (51 percent) of the new airlines (CAMAIR Co) while the American group, allegedly offered 75 million US dollars (Over FCFA 40 billion).
President Biya seemed to have considered the PM right, when he instructed Abah Abah to issue another communiqué on April 4, 2007, announcing that government would re-launch the tender for the purchase of CAMAIR Co.
It was also said that First Delta Air Services rejected a demand by government to improve on its initial offer, insisting to pay only what it had initially offered.Meanwhile, local newspapers reportedly close to Abah Abah carried out virulent attacks on the PM, since his intervention prevented the auctioning of CAMAIR for "selfish interests."
The French language newspaper, Le Front (No. 258 of Monday March 10, 2008), run a lead story titled, 'La CAMAIR entre les mains d'un gang americain', meaning that CAMAIR was in the hands of an American gang.
The paper accused the PM and the US Embassy of being accomplices in a racket to dupe Cameroon in the privatisation of CAMAIR. It reported that Valiant Airways was fake, claiming that the company was neither known by the American Federal Aviation Authority nor by the international organisation in charge of registering airline companies worldwide.
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