20091222
allafrica

Abuja — The Federal Government has proposed the sum of N249.4billion for federal roads across the country in the 2010 fiscal year. Out of this amount, about N6billion will be spent on personnel costs, N21.6billion has been set aside for overheads while the larger chunk of N221.3billion has been earmarked for capital projects.

Minister of Works, Dr Muhammed Hassan Lawan disclosed this yesterday at a budget defence session with the House Committee on Works.

Lawan who took the legislators through the work plan for the coming year said there will be no new projects in the New Year as funds will be deployed to ongoing projects to ensure that they were completed.

He said priority will be placed on 34 ongoing road projects which have reached 50 per cent completion, another 19 projects which are currently below 50 percent completion as well as some undisclosed number of projects under the presidential initiatives.

Lawan also disclosed that the government will ensure that major road arteries linking the various geo-political zones of the country but which have suffered neglect and under-funding in the past were given a facelift.

He blamed the poor state of major federal highways on the collapse of the railways and the abandonment of the inland waterways transportation.

According to him, the neglect of other means of transportation and the over-dependence on the roads have brought intense pressure resulting in the total collapse of these roads, just as poor funding and a budget cycle that pushes road construction into the rainy season was also given as reasons for the state of the roads.

But the lawmakers have expressed concern over the lack of capacity of the Ministry to implement its budget in previous years and the return of large chunk of funds to the treasury while roads remain in dilapidated conditions.

Acting Chairman of the House Committee on Works, Honourable Abullahi Jalo who led the onslaught against the Minister of Works said the issue of huge unspent funds in the Federal Ministry of Works was not only ironical but odd and challenged the Lawan to explain the alleged lack of capacity of his personnel to implement the budget.

Honourable Gbenga Elegbeleye followed suit when he declared that the Federal ministry of Works was a total failure considering the state of the roads and the inability of the Ministry to intervene over the years.

Elegbeleye and other legislators who spoke after him were unimpressed with the excuses of long rainy season and inability to transfer funds from one project to another and were emphatic in their position that something positive should be done on the roads to save lives and property that are lost on the roads on a daily basis.