Ghana Hosts 19th BAGASOO TC Financial and Administration Meeting, as Liberia Stands to Benefit From an EU-ASA Project.
The 19th meetings of the Technical Committee on Finance and Administration of the Banjul Accord Group Aviation Safety Overnight Organization (BAGASOO) was held in Accra, Ghana from May 2-4, 2023. The gathering brought together six (6) out of the seven (7) West African Countries that are part of BAGASOO; Cabe Verde, The Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Ghana, the host, while Guinea was absent.
The meeting primarily bordered on financial and administrative matters, states’ contributions amongst other things. Liberia was represented by the Deputy Director General for Administration and Acting Director General of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority, Atty. George S. Mulbah and its Chief Accountant, Kpanan B. Kollie.
During the meeting, states were once again reminded of the Board’s decision when they met in Sierra Leone in December 2022; that arrears up to 2020 shall be 100% waived when payment of their current (2022) contributions are made. To this end, the TC-Finance and Administration advised Liberia to engage her neighbors, Guinea and Sierra Leone to jointly meet with RFIR and other stakeholders from the three countries with BAGASOO to discuss the need for RFIR to pay the 2022 (current) contributions of the three countries so as to have arrears up to 2020 waived as per the Board’s previous decision. What this means is Liberia will have over USD$ 900,000.00 in arrears waived.
In fulfilment of the promise made by former Director General, Moses Y. Kollie, Liberia, through its delegation, assured the TC-Finance Administration that the LCAA will make its $10,000.00 payment this month upon their return. The Acting Director General furthered that his entity will strive to meet up with the arrange quarterly payment going forward, and all efforts will be made to have the LCAA current.
News to the Liberia CAA is the EU-ASA Project, designed to support the sub-Saharan Africa region to improve aviation safety. This program assists African Member states to meet their obligations under the Chicago Convention in establishing an effective aviation safety oversight system. Each year, BAGASOO issues a circular to every member state informing them of available free trainings under the EU-ASA Project. Unfortunately, BAGASOO seems to be amazed that only a select-few member states like Ghana and Nigeria respond to these circulars and take advantage of these free training opportunities. To this end, the Acting Director General of the Liberia Civil Aviation Authority, Atty George S. Mulbah, Sr. assured BAGASOO, through its Technical Committee- Finance and Administration that the LCAA will officially appoint a focus person to the TC- F and A to enable Liberia form part of these meetings and access some of those opportunities among others.
As per tradition, Guinea is scheduled to host the next Board Meetings in June this year. If Guinea does, Liberia will be hosting the next Technical Committee -Finance and Administration Meetings in November this year. However, in the event that Guinea doesn’t, Liberia will then host the Board Meeting in June, while Nigeria hosts the Technical Committee - Finance and Administration in November.
Meanwhile, in closing, the Acting DG, LCAA gave the Vote of Thanks. He thanked the BAGASOO Technical Committee – Finance and Administration for hosting a successful meeting in Accra, Ghana. He encouraged member states to remain steadfast in meeting their financial obligations to the organization and reassured the TC – F and A that Liberia will make its USD 10,000.00 payment as promised upon return.
