Lai Mohammed, the minister of information and culture, says
states would no longer be refunded for construction or repair works carried out
on federal roads.
Addressing state house correspondents after the third
virtual meeting of the federal executive council (FEC), Mohammed said
reconstruction works done on federal roads would be supervised by the ministry
of works and housing.
“There is a caveat henceforth if any state takes on federal
government road, it will not be paid, they will not get any refund,” he told
journalists on Wednesday.
“Even if you want to pay from your own pocket, you will
still need the permission of the federal government and it will be supervised
by the federal ministry of works and housing.”
Mohammed explained that the council approved a refund of
N148 billion spent on federal roads by Rivers, Cross River, Ondo, Bayelsa and
Osun states.
The minister said the approval of the refund followed a memo
presented by Babatunde Fashola, the minister of works and housing.
“You will recall that in 2016, 36 states of the federation
sent a very huge bill to the federal government, asking for compensation for
money that they have expended on federal roads,” he explained.
“This prompted Mr President to set up a committee to go and
verify the claims of these 36 states, whether indeed these projects were
actually constructed, were they completed, in line with the federal government
standards.
“At the end of that exercise by an inter-ministerial
committee, chaired by the minister of works and housing, but also had ministers
of education, transportation, finance, minister of state for works, DG BPP and
permanent secretary cabinet office as members.
“At the end of that exercise, the committee recommended that
the federal government should refund N550,364,297.31 billion to 31 of the 36
states, after they were convinced that, yes indeed, the projects were completed
and they were federal government roads.
“The claims of five other states Cross River, Rivers, Ondo,
Bayelsa and Osun failed on the grounds that they did not do proper
documentation and the committee felt they needed proper documentation.
“So, the committee went back with new terms of reference to
ensure that the claims of the five states were in order, that is why the BPP is
on the committee.
“So, at the end of the exercise, the committee now reported
that the five states – Cross River with 20 roads and one bridge will get a
refund of N18,394,737,608.85, Ondo with six roads to get a refund of
N7,822,147,577.08, and Osun with two roads and one bridge to get a refund of
N2,468,938,876.78.
“Others are Bayelsa with five roads and one bridge is to get
a refund of N38,040,564,783.40 and Rivers with three roads and three flyovers
bridges is to get a refund of N78,953,067,518.29.”
The minister said the committees confirmed the roads and the
bridges, that not only were they completed, they were in substantial-good form,
adding that some of the bridges and roads were built about 10 years ago.
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com