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•Sets up 6 committees to review debt owed contractors
By Chukwudi Nweje
Ahead of the Ministry of Works’ 2024 budget defence before the Joint Committee of the National Assembly today, the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, has said the road sector needs a different kind of attention beyond the envelope it received from the 2024 appropriation bill.
He noted that for a developing nation like Nigeria, road sector development is a catalyst for economic development, stressing that the road sector has the potential to improve the security sector, agricultural sector, trade and investment, health, education, as well as every other aspect of the country’s development.
The minister stated this in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Orji Uchenna Orji, after an in-house budget defence by directors in the ministry at the weekend.
Umahi also set up six committees, one committee per geopolitical zone, to review all debts of unpaid certificates generated before May 29, 2023, and from May 29, 2023 to date, which are tasked with the duty to review the approved and unapproved variation of prices and all augmentations that were approved or are yet to be approved and make recommendations to the ministry’s management.
The minister noted that the unpaid certificates the ministry inherited from the past administration, which runs up to N1.5 trillion, and the expected contract reviews arising from inflation, are two subject matters the ministry must confront in order to move forward.
The statement added that the ministry has exposed the debts and all reviews in the ministry to President Bola Tinubu’s economic team, and the Federal Executive Committee on road sector funding with the hope that the internal works through the constituted committees would facilitate the use external consultants to re-verify the works, so that concrete decisions would be made to move the ministry forward.
The statement also asked contractors who are owed to approach the committees with all documents to back up their claims from Tuesday, December 12, to Friday, December 22, 2023, from 9 am to 7 pm at the Ministry of Works Conference Room.
Umahi commended President Tinubu for the attention he has given to the ministry and his approval of concrete pavement in most of the 2024 projects.
He said the ministry was committed to the development of road infrastructure in line with the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’ of the Tinubu-led administration.
Umahi thanked President Tinubu and the National Assembly, vowing to judiciously use the funds allocated to the ministry to ensure their impact on the road infrastructure improvement in the country.
