The Minister of
Works, Mike Onolememen, said the ministry’s N100bn proposed budget for 2015 was
slashed by the Ministry of Finance to N11bn, representing an 89 per cent
reduction.
Onolememen, who
was in the Senate to defend his ministry’s estimates for the fiscal year, added
that no sum was approved for the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency’s
capital projects and the Office of the Surveyor -General of the
Federation.
He said the
Finance ministry predicated its action on the economic realities on the ground.
The minister
expressed concern that only 33 out of the 210 ongoing road projects had been
provided for in view of the “lean allocation” to the ministry.
He also said the
provision was not sufficient to encourage contractors to sustain appreciable
progress on their work sites.
Onolememen added,
“No provisions have been made for other departments of the ministry such as
Road and Bridge Design Department, Mechanical and Electrical Department and the
Service Department.”
The minister also
disclosed that since 2011, the ministry had always been owed outstanding
budgeted funds.
He said, “Only
N45, 682, 844, 395.00 was released for the works ministry out of 2014 capital
appropriation of N98, 814, 368, 704. This leaves a balance of N53, 131, 524,
309.00 not released as of December 2014.
“It is important
to emphasise that the performance of the ministry would have been considerably
enhanced if the outstanding budgeted funds of N53.131bn had been released to
the ministry.
“More importantly,
if the cumulative outstanding budgeted funds of N203, 392, 075, 947.25 for the
period spanning 2011 to 2014 had been released, the total indebtedness would
have been brought down from N230bn to N27bn”
He however said
that due to the lean capital budget, a model of Public Private Partnership was
being explored to ensure that more capital projects were carried out this year.
Most members of
the Senate Committee on Works described the budget of the ministry as laughable
.
The Chairman of
the committee, Ayogu Eze, said the budget was very terrible for a sector that needs
at least N500bn annually for road construction and maintenance.
Eze said, “To now
be given just N11bn, means the ministry would need a magician to perform
wonders.
“The picture being
painted by this budget profile is very grim. We are in a period of crisis which
we must all manage very critically.”
Federal Government slashes Works Ministry budget from N100Bn to N11Bn
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
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