Austerity measures bite ministry of works

The austerity measures in place by the federal government is hitting hard at the federal ministry of works, as its proposed N100bn budget for 2015 has been slashed by 89 per cent slash to N11bn by the ministry of finance.

This was revealed on Monday by Mike Onolememen, minister of works, who was in the senate to defend his ministry’s budget for the fiscal year, adding that no sum was approved for the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency’s (FERMA) capital projects.

The minister, who expressed concern that only 33 out of the 210 ongoing road projects had been provided for in the allocation to the ministry, said the provision was insufficient to encourage contractors to sustain appreciable progress on their work sites.

“No provisions have been made for other departments of the ministry such as Road and Bridge Design Department, Mechanical and Electrical Department, the Service Department and the Office of the Surveyor-General of the Federation.

“Only N45, 682, 844, 395.00bn was released for the works ministry out of 2014 capital appropriation of N98, 814, 368, 704bn. This leaves a balance of N53, 131, 524, 309.00 not released as of December 2014.

“It is important to emphasise that the performance of the ministry would have been considerably enhanced if the outstanding budgeted funds of N53.131bn 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 N230bn to N27bn.”

He however said that the ministry was working on a model of Public Private Partnership to ensure that more capital projects were carried out this year, insisting that the ministry had always been owed outstanding budgeted funds since 2011.

Reacting, Ayogu Eze, chairman of the committee, described the budget as terrible for the sector, recognising that it  needs at least N500bn annually for road construction and maintenance.

“To now be given just N11 bn, means the ministry would need a magician to perform wonders.

“The picture being painted by this budget profile is very grim. We are in a period of crisis, which we must all manage very critically.”

The Nigerian navy made a similar complaint last week. While defending the 2015 budget before the senate, Usman Jibrin, a rear admiral and chief of naval staff, said its budget was slashed by 90 per cent by the ministry of finance from N205.4 bn to N8bn.