Corruption, cause of high cost of projects, says Fashola

From Magnus Eze & Susan Obaje, Abuja

Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has blamed high cost of infrastructural projects in the country on corruption perpetrated through contract inflation.

He stated this at the 2017 national project cost reduction summit of the Quantity Surveyors Registration Board of Nigeria (QSRBN) in Abuja, explaining that corruption in the construction sector was in the form of deliberate inflation of project costs to satisfy pecuniary interests.

Fashola was represented by the Director of Building and Infrastructure in the ministry, Mr. Sanni Gidado. He regretted that the unwholesome practice had far-reaching negative consequences on national development and the economic wellbeing of the citizenry.

The minister said the problem could be tackled by ensuring a regime of proper project costing through the establishment of “a reliable cost database that will ensure realistic costing of buildings, roads, bridges and other civil engineering projects across the nation’s geopolitical zones.”

QSRBN registrar, Mr. Godson Moneke, explained that the construction database was aimed at bringing some sanity to the infrastructure construction sector of the economy.

“Our hearts bleed for Nigeria when we watch with amazement as monies, which could achieve three units of projects, achieve only one, while the rest are shamelessly diverted for fraudulent appropriation.

“To stem these anomalies, QSRBN is in the fore front of the establishment of costing templates for all categories of construction projects across Nigeria,” he said.