Senate cautions FG on abandoned projects

The Senate on Monday reaffirmed its determination to cut down on wasteful spending by government just as it urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure the sustenance in policies, programmes and projects of previous administrations.

At an investigative  hearing by the Senate committee on FCT, on the abandonment of N8 billion Code of Conduct Bureau Office headquarters, the senate raised concern on the rate at which successive administrations have abandoned projects started by their predecessors.
According to Chairman of the committee, Senator Dino Melaye,  “the alarming increase in the number of abandoned projects has become a great concern to well meaning Nigerians who see the need for such projects to be completed by the various government’s that initiated them from the beginning.

Melaye also observed that  new ones are initiated only to be abandoned again by yet another successive government, adding that  the trend has been recurring while the nation’s resources continue to be wasted.

“It is instructive to state that this is not so with the developed countries. Projects and programmes, as well as policies are sustained. They place nation’s interest above other considerations. This sutenable poicy has yielded positive results as these countries have moved from developing to developed world.”

The lawmaker, who represents ‎Kogi West senatorial district in the National Assembly, while reminding the present administration of its commitment as an advocate of change, charged the executive arm of government “to right all administrative wrongs championed by past administrations”.

Lamenting the ‎rate at which projects across the country were abandoned by successive governments since 1999, Senator Melaye said, “the Senate was utterly dismayed when it received a motion in respect of the abandonment of N8 billion Code of Conduct Bureau office headquarters projects”.

Chairman of the Code of Conduct Bureau, Mr. Sam Saba, who came under fire over the bureau’s decision to abandon a building project already budgeted for, was charged by members of the committee to ensure its completion by pushing for its inclusion in the 2017 budget.

A member of the committee, Senator Francis Alimikhena, who objected to the procurement of a new office building for CCB, told the Chairman that the abandonment of the initial building project was an indication that it was conceived to fail.

“From the way things were done from‎ the beginning, I think the project was conceived to fail. In 2010, N3bn was projected for the project. And then the amount was reviewed in 2012 to N8 billion; that is after spending over N1 billion. You decided to dump the contract and procure the same office building for N4.4 billion. Is this not waste”, the lawmaker queried.

On her path, another lawmaker‎ on the committee, asked the code of conduct bureau to consider completing the office project initially conceived by mobilizing experienced contractors back to site.

The committee also directed the code of conduct bureau to within furnish it with documents within fourty eight hours, showing proof of agreement entered into with consultants responsible for valuing the project for construction of its office building.