FG slashes Works Ministry’s budget from N100bn to N11bn, FERMA gets zero allocation

FG slashes Works Ministry’s budget from N100bn to N11bn, FERMA gets zero allocation

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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 slash.

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, 395.00bn was released for the works
ministry out of 2014 capital appropriation of N98, 814, 368, 704bn .
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.
“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.”