ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The lean allocation for the Federal Ministry of Works in the 2015 Budget will mean that no provision has been made for the duo of the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGF).
Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen, who dropped the hint on Monday before the Senate Committee on Works, also hinted that only 33 road and bridge projects have been provided for in the budget.
According to Onolememen, the provisions are insufficient to encourage contractors to sustain appreciable progress of work on site.
“In view of the lean allocation for the Ministry in 2015 Budget, only road and bridge projects have been considered. Out of the Ministry’s portfolio of about 210 ongoing road and bridge projects, only 33 numbers have been provided for, and the provisions are insufficient to encourage the contractors to sustain appreciable progress of works on site.
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“No provisions have been made for other departments of the Ministry such as Road and Bridge Design Departments, Mechanical and Electrical Department and Service Departments.
“No provisions have been made for capital allocations to the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation (OSGF),” he disclosed.
Onolememen revealed that the sum of N39,579,312,175 was proposed as 2015 Budget for the Ministry and its parastatals for both capital and recurrent expenditures.
He explained that the breakdown of the amount is as follows: N11,232,000,000 for capital budget, N20,865,168,931 for overhead budget (which has N353,141,442 for the main ministry and N20,357,611,643 for parastatals), and N7,636,559,090 for personnel cost.
Earlier, Onolememen disclosed that the ministry’s indebtedness in the last four years was in excess of N230 billion.
Heobserved that the indebtedness would have come down to N27 billion, if the cumulative outstanding budgeted funds of N203,392,075,947.25 for the period spanning 2011 to 2014 had been released.
“In spite of this shortfall in the release of funds, the ministry achieved significant progress of work on the various sites across the country with outstanding certificates currently in excess of N230 billion comprising N219.5 billion for highway projects, N10 billion for engineering design and supervision consultants, and N1.2 billion for weigh bridge and materials and geotechnic contracts.
“It is important to emphasise that the performance of the ministry would have considerably enhanced, if the outstanding budgeted funds of N53,131,524,309.00 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 N230 billion N27 billion,” he added.