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.”
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