Pink Aviation Services, Vienna.
14.6.2004
Press release regarding Ghana Armed Forces selling
Skyvan Airplanes.
Pink Aviation Services became interested to enquire
about the possibility to buy the scrapped Skyvans after it received a note from the
Chamber of Commerce in Vienna through the Commercial Counsellor in Lagos that
Ghana Armed Forces expressed its pleasure to sell their scrapped Skyvans as
their intention was to dispose of them but were glad that somebody showed
interest to buy. At least the Skyvans would provide some revenue after all.
GAF
mentioned that it tried since many years to sell those Skyvans but could not
find anybody who was interested.
Pink Aviation Services bought four Skyvans from Ghana
Armed Forces by end 2003. The Airplanes have been seized after the company has
refurbished and repaired them for the ferry flight to Europe,
scheduled for mid of February 2004.
We tried to do a honest business transaction with Ghana
Armed Forces but unfortunately the present
state is as follows
I got an invitation to bid for scrapped airplanes in
writing, on an officialletterhead of Ghana Armed Forces, signed by Honourable RR
Ayisa, Squadron Leader for Chief of Air Staff, stating that Ghana Armed Forces
is offering the opportunity to put in a bid.
The
Report of investigation 6 month later states that this was illegal.
Same Invitation stated, that the terms are "AS IS
WHERE IS" basis, and I may
inspect the scraps. 3 contacts have
been mentioned on the invitation letter:
Officer Commanding Engineering Wing, Air Force Base Accra
Officer Commanding Engineering Wing, Air Force Base
Takoradi
Director Logistics General Headquarters Burma Camp, Accra.
I contacted all tree units, I was granted permission
to inspect the airplanes, and I received a document from Ghana Air Force
Officers in Uniform in their office stating all the technical data of the
fuselages and engines, as well as a list of the spares which were for sale.
I
inspected and confirmed the serial numbers as well as the flight hours in
presence of the Honourable Ghana Air Force Officers in Uniform, at Takoradi Air
Force Station.
Six month later, I was confronted with an allegation,
that I received illegally a document which stated the facts, and I was not
supposed to know these facts as I wanted to bid for the Skyvans.
This
document shows the basic figures one has to
know when buying airplanes or airplane engines.
At the time of inspection the airplanes have been
declared as scrap, since Ghana Air Force was not able to operate these airplanes
economically, same as a lot of
Skyvan operators are not able to do so any more. The manufacturer of these
airplanes, Short’s Brothers in North Ireland, have stopped supplying spares.
In an interview of Ghanaian-Chronicle with the Airforce
Commander AVM EA Mantey, he said the Skyvans were bought about 32 years ago
until they were grounded by the Air Force some years back because of
“uneconomical maintainable cost” and also the fact that they had become old
and useless and were breaking down frequently.
We, Pink Aviation Services in Vienna
are specialized to rebuild scrapped Skyvans since 11 years, we hold spares and
the special knowledge to rebuild oldtimer aircraft.
Therefore we placed a bid stating very clearly the
following wording in our bid:
Subject
to the following:
We received a document from Ghana Armed Forces, General
Headquarters(LOG) in original, with the Ghanaian Coat of Arms on it, signed by
Colonel CK Yeguo, stating that our bid was accepted and we are requested to pay
the amount of 42.200,-- US Dollars into the account NR. 110027, Ghana Commercial
Bank, Accra. We checked and found out, that this account is held officially by
Ghana Armed Forces and is used frequently
for international money transfer for spares and equipment bought by Ghana Armed
Forces,. We paid the agreed amount into this account.
Our engineers flew to Ghana,
started repairing the airplanes for the ferry flight to Europe, where they
should be refurbished. We spent 2 weeks in repairing the airplanes, and
installed a lot of spares supplied and bought by us.
Further at our home base we bought additional spares
worth approx. US Dollars 250.000,-- which are sitting now in our hangar, waiting
to be installed. As scheduled, we left Takoradi by end of January, to return to Ghana
by mid of February to ferry the airplanes to Europe.
Refering to the acceptance of bid, we requested a confirmation
that the ownership of the airplanes was transfered to our company. This
we received in original, again on Ghana Armed Forces letterhead, and signed by
Commodore Ars Nuno, Director General Logistics, Ghana Armed Forces. This
Document was issued under reference GHQ/7235/LOG on 4th February
2004.
Mid of February we have been informally informed by
technicians based in Takoradi, that we are not allowed to continue work and to
fly out the Skyvans. We received an e-mail,
with an attached document ,
stating that the aircraft sale was cancelled.
Six month later, the board of investigation just
confirmed the cancellation of this sale, ignoring that meanwhile the ownership
has been legally transferred into the name of Pink Aviation and the airplanes
have been registered in Austria
based on this document according to international law.
The Ghanaian Ministry of Justice as well as the
Ghanaian Investment Promotion Centre stated, that this cancellation is not in
accordance with Ghanaian and international law.
Several Letters which were sent
from Pink Aviation Services to
officials of Ghana Armed forces during the
next two month remained unanswered.
Nearly five month after full payment of the aircrafts
we received a letter, again on the letterhead of Ghana Armed Forces signed by
Commodore MM Tahiru that we are invited to testify before the board of
investigation, which was established to determine that internal procedures of
Ghana Armed Forces have been followed.
After investing more than 400.000 US Dollars for the
airplanes, we were then invited to create more expenses so that
the Armed Forces can take
appropriate actions to fulfil their
obligations based on a signed contract, -or not.
Latest at this time, we considered that the sale of the
airplanes was a fake, organized by criminals using Ghana Armed Force's name to
defraud an honest well-minded
European company.
We decided not to spend thousands of dollars to fly to Ghana
just to get into a better position or to be blackmailed
Mr. Tahiru sent a questionnaire regarding the aircraft
sale, which we answered with our best knowledge.
After long telephone calls, the request of Mr. Tahiru
was, that Mr. Thomas Lewetz shall fly at his own expenses to Ghana, testifies
and then claims the cost for this journey from
Ghana Armed Forces. Our conclusion was, that if we do not receive back
our paid property, we will never be reimbursed for the expenses of our
trip from the same authorities. So
we were not prepared to spend 30
Millon Cedis or more to buy a short term airline ticket to Ghana.
This lead to a written statement from General
Headquarters, Ghana Armed Forces, Burma Camp, Accra, that the Board of
Investigation is concluding the report without quoting the answers we have given
on the questionnaire.
Therefore,
the report of investigation apparently was issued based only on the input of
individuals, who suddenly appear to have
Is
this Ghana?
For more infos and the original documents please refer
to www.ghanaairforce.com
For more information about our business refer to www.pinkskyvan.com
Please feel free to contact me any time,
Thomas
Lewetz
Managing
Director
Pink
Aviation Services
Luftverkehrsunternehmen
GmbH&CoKG
Endresstrasse
79/4, A-1230 Vienna, Austria
Tel. +43
1 8898 222 , +43 664 338 6666
e-mail: office@pink.at
Fax +43
1 889 2626-26
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