Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike has accused the National
Assembly of often allocating paltry sums for execution of capital projects.
The governor who was speaking on Tuesday during the
commissioning of the Faculty of Clinical Sciences at Rivers State University
said the action of the lawmakers always leads to a constant variation of the
cost of capital projects.
He said the implication has always been projects abandonment
by various administrations.
The governor said it is the reason he ensures that he pays
almost one hundred per cent of the cost of his projects to avoid cost
variation.
Wike said: “The problem we are having is through the
National Assembly which is most unfortunate. Take, for example, the cancer
centre we commissioned yesterday, that centre cost us N25.9bn and we are not
owing a dime. We paid Julius Berger 80% upfront and they completed it within
record time.
“If it was National Assembly, a project that will cost
N25.9bn, they will put for this year’s budget N500m, and then you can now
imagine what will happen for a project of almost N26bn, you are now putting in
budget N500m.
“In essence, in 20 years there will be variations upon
variation on that project and at the end of the day, the project will be
abandoned.
“With the inflation rate we have in this country today, if I
now say, let’s complete this project it will take more than the original cost
when it was awarded. That tells you we must change our pattern so we will not
be having abandoned projects”.
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