States and No Repayment For Repairing FG Roads
It has been stated by the Federal Government, FG that states would no longer be refunded for repair works or construction carried out on federal roads.
Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, made this known while addressing State House correspondents after the third virtual meeting of the Federal Executive Council (FEC), stating that reconstruction works done on federal roads would be supervised by the Ministry of Works and Housing.
He informed that there is a caveat henceforth if any state takes on Federal Government road, it will not be reimbursed.
Adding that even if states want to pay from their own pocket, they would still require the authorization of the Federal Government and it would be supervised by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
Meanwhile, Mohammed explained that the council approved a refund of N148 billion spent on federal roads by Rivers, Cross River, Ondo, Bayelsa and Osun states.
He recalled that in 2016, 36 states of the federation sent a very huge bill to the Federal Government, asking for compensation for funds that they had expended on federal roads.
This made the President set up a committee to go and verify the claims of these 36 states, whether indeed these projects were actually constructed, and if they were completed, in line with the Federal Government standards.
The exercise is conducted by an inter-ministerial committee, chaired by the Minister of Works and Housing, but also had ministers of education, transportation, finance, minister of state for works, DG BPP and permanent secretary, cabinet office as members.
At the end of that exercise, the committee approved that the Federal Government should refund N550,364,297.31 billion to 31 of the 36 states, after they were convinced that, yes indeed, the projects were completed and they were Federal Government roads.