AUMTCO plans to auction Abuja buses …It’s a rumour—MD

By Josephine Ella- Ejeh

More Mercedes Benz and Marco Polo buses that are in the fleet of the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company(AUMTCO) that which eased the commuting problems in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT may soon to be auctioned as scrap, Blueprint weekend investigations have revealed. The recent planned auction is coming seven years after AUMTCO had earlier auctioned about 100 of its buses to private transport operators in the FCT, thereby reducing the total number of buses in its fleet to 367.

Our investigations revealed that bidding for some of the buses, which have just minor mechanical faults, is presently ongoing but the prices that are being offered are not encouraging.

According to our correspondent’s findings, bidders are not even willing to pay up to N1 million for the scraps. In spite of the low prices being offered, Blueprint weekend gathered that the management is bent on disposing the undisclosed number of buses to reduce the financial burden of managing them.

The planned auctioning would further reduce the total number of the buses available for FCT commuters. Blueprint Weekend found out that the FCT administration has no plans to procure more buses for replenish its fleet anytime soon.

It would be recalled that three years ago, the Senator Bala Mohammed FCT administration had procured additional 100 high capacity buses in order to expand AUMTCOM fleet and since then, no more purchase has been made.

At the commissioning, the minister had disclosed that AUMTCO had also embarked on the refurbishing of 75 out of the 91 Mercedes Benz, Marco polo buses and will deploy them accordingly.

Our source, who preferred anonymity, claimed that “there is nothing wrong with the vehicles because the engines are all in intact. The problem is the cost of maintenance is very high. Diesel now costs N240 per litre so we are operating at a loss.’’ According to the source, “the FCTA has left all the burden on us. We buy fuel, pay for maintenance and even pay the staff.”

AUMTCO MD denies
In an interview with Blueprint Weekend, the Managing Director AUMTCO, Mr. Eddie Ajon had dismissed the planned auction as a rumor. Mr Eddie however admitted that once in a while the company is forced to decommission some of its buses when managing them becomes very uneconomical.

The Managing Director nonetheless insisted that the management has not arrived at any decision to decommission any of the buses in the fleet. He said that it’s a standard practice all over the world for bus operators or operators to sell off their equipment that are no longer functional, so we do it once in a while. We did it about seven years ago. So, anytime there is need to decommission buses, we decommission them’’

Ajon however pointed out that ‘’there are rules and regulations governing sales of government property so, everybody must follow that law. We only decommission when we cannot get value for the buses.” According to him, the management auctions them when they are not economically viable to ply the roads. ‘’We call it beyond economic repair. If you run it then, you will be spending more money on running them than you are gain so when it gets to this point we decommission them,” Ajoni said.

The AUMTCO boss said that the company follows the normal procurement process in line with the Procurement Act which provides for how to sell government property.

Our source insists that plans are underway to auction the buses and that conditions have been outlined for the sales as scraps.
“There are conditions that you must agree to if you want to buy the vehicles. The agreement is that we are selling the buses as scrap to people who agree to this terms. You will buy the bus as scrap and we will pieces them and then you can use the parts for other things,” the source said.

Blueprint Weekend also found out that the decision of the management to sell the buses as scrap is to decongest the city of some of the buses described as ‘rickety.’

According to another source, the management is not happy with the way operators of the previously auctioned buses are operating the buses. “The FCT administration is regretting selling those buses to private operators. The buses are still painted in our colour but the owners have branded it with their names like SECDA,” he said.

He further disclosed that the management is “looking at ways to get the previous auctioned buses off FCT roads to decongest the city because they are rickety.” The source, who hinted that this time round, the management is considering selling off the buses to companies rather than individuals, added that the new owners will not use the buses within the FCT.

  1. We aren’t in charge–FCT’s Mass Transit
    Similarly, the Head Mass Transit of the FCT, Adewale Alebiosu denied knowledge of any planned sale of AUMTCO buses. “Who said they are selling them. It is the Abuja Urban Mass Transport Company Limited and Abuja Investment Company Limited that are directly in-charge. We are just a supervisory body.”

 

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