By Kabir Muhammad
Abuja – The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has so far released N57.6 bilion for capital projects for the last quarter of 2016 to first quarter of 2017, Alhaji Isiyaka Ismaila, FCT Director Treasury has said.
Ismaila stated this while briefing newsmen on the activities to mark the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello second year in office on Wednesday in Abuja.
According to him, the projects include water, road, rail, education, health and environmental sanitation.
He said that all the projects were well identified, saying that their contractors have been fully mobilised and are at the sites.
The director noted that all indigenous contractors that have N100 million and below have been paid.
“It should be noted that FCT is more of a state than a ministry, as pension and counterpart funding of various projects within the territory have appropriately been settled.
“For last quarter of 2016, N6.9billion was released to the 627 indigenous contractors, while in the first quarter of 2017 N3.3billion was paid to 403 indigenous contractors in the FCT.
“Liability comes down as some bills were not matured at the period of time, due diligence and due process were adhered to, that was the reason for the less amount compared to the last quarter,’’ he said.
Ismaila said with the Treasury Single Account (TSA) has simplified transactions and blocked leakages.
On pensioners, he said all outstanding accrued liabilities have been paid up to date with N2.3billion.
The director said students feeding programme was re-invigorated for the well being and welfare of the students where N980 million was disbursed for six months.
On counterpart funding, Ismaila said N1, 7billion has been paid on all the projects that require counterpart funding in the territory.
He said that based on the statutory allocation, N7 billion has been released for the contractor handling Abuja Light Rail project.
The director said that the administration has seriously taken staff welfare as a priority as salary is being paid as and when due with no arrears.
On water, he said as of now there is no bill in the treasury waiting to be cleared, saying that there is no delay in the provision and distribution of chemicals.