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.”

lovat:
That money can't construct Lekki Epe expressway

Firefire:
Interesting.....


Problem:
He said the Finance ministry predicated its action on the economic realities on the ground.

Solution:
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

Lagos state the HQ of APC with bumper harvest of IGR and Federal Allocation inclusive of sharing from the SURE P account still went ahead with Private Partnership and even creating an office for it: http://www.lagosstateppp.gov.ng/projects/

With full transparency, no course for alarm.


All mentioned projects by the Jonathan led administration shall be fully achieved as scheduled including the 2nd Niger Bridge.

GEJ till 2019!

God bless Nigeria.

Obiagelli:

At the Nigerian rate of 1 billion per kilometre, we are in soup

Lalasticlala

adadadon:

clown the roads will still be tolled...
bye bye Lagos Ibadan expressway

dustmalik:
GEJ is steering Nigeria to hell, literally.

Obiagelli:
Bye bye second niger bridge?

Firefire:



Use your reading glass: All the projects done in the HQ of APC with tax payer's money still tolled! dearisgod oooo

Obiagelli:
Bye bye second niger bridge?

IbnSultaan:
Gej never intended to build it

Obiagelli:
Bye bye second niger bridge?

FG Owes Contractors N230b, Says Works Minister

March 10, 2015



The Federal Ministry of Works owes contractors N230 bil­lion for outstanding certificates that have been verified, the Min­ister, Mr Mike Onolememen said on Monday.

He also disclosed that there is no capital allocation to parastat­als under his ministry, including the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), thereby in­creasing the fears that federal roads across the country might further worsen in 2015.

Onolememen who disclosed this while defending the 2015 budget proposal of his ministry and parastatals before the Senate Committee on Works, pointed out that N39.5 billion was the total allocation to them in 2015, out of which N11 billion is capital and N300 million for recurrent for the main ministry only.

He also said out of the total budgetary allocation to the minis­try, N20 billion is for recurrent of the parastatals. He lamented that the budget of the ministry, which used to be at the ratio of 1-5 for recurrent and capital respectively, is now at 1-0.6, saying this is not enough to execute projects of the ministry.

He explained that given this financial challenges, the minis­try has decided to focus on only 33 projects out of 210 projects it has, which included only roads and bridges, which he said, must be ongoing and already awarded roads and bridge contracts.

According to the Minister, “aside the ministry’s capital bud­get proposal slashed from the pro­jected N100 billion to just N11 bil­lion by the Ministry of Finance in view of economic realities on ground, zero allocations were made for capital projects of FER­MA and office of Surveyor -Gen­eral of the Federation (OSGF)”.

“No provisions have been made for other Departments of the Ministry such as Road and Bridge Design Departments, Me­chanical and Electrical Depart­ment as well as Service Depart­ment”, he added.

The Minister also disclosed that since 2011, the Ministry has always been owed outstanding budgeted funds, totaling N203.392 billion by the end of the 2014 fis­cal year. He said: “Only N45, 682, 844, 395.00 billion was released for the Works Ministry out of 2014 capital appropriation of N98, 814, 368, 704 billion. This leaves a bal­ance of N53, 131, 524, 309.00 not released as at December 2014.

kastonkastrol:
[b]use your head nigg'ur... What has lagos/fashola got to do with this slash? With the dwindling revenue to government and the spiral effect of Naira falling against USDollar on banks’ fortunes how would the ongoing projects embarked upon be completed? Please tell me cause I want to know.. Gej just promised to complete all the ongoing projects before his tenure expires.[/b]

Mogidi:


Obiagelli being an Igbo woman I'd have thought she'd be sad at the news not rejoice that it could be abandoned.

Firefire:



Use your reading glass: All the projects done in the HQ of APC with tax payer's money still tolled! dearisgod oooo

Obiagelli:

No you want to copy the Tinubu model, interesting.

Ngwakwe:




Obiagelli, what are you turning into?

From available records, the Federal Government has paid its counterpart fund for the bridge already.

It seen you are having nightmares by the continuation of this project.

Firefire:



You mean the model of the biggest landlord on planet earth ?