The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has indicted his colleagues in the National Assembly over the arms deal scandal, involving the former National Security Adviser (NSA), retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki to the tune of $2.1 billion.
According to Senator Saraki, the oversight function of lawmakers is under question in a situation where such huge amount of money meant for arms was allegedly diverted and or mismanaged.
The Senate president, who spoke on a motion tagged: “Abandonment of projects: A menace to Development in Nigeria,” stressed that standing committees in the National Assembly have failed in their responsibilities and that the 8th Senate, which he heads, must make a difference.
“I want us to ensure that our committees do proper oversight. The leadership must also do its own part.
“Even the present prosecution of the former National Security Adviser was due to lack of proper oversight.”
During the debate on the motion, Senator Suleiman Nazir (Bauchi North) observed that public infrastructure account for most of the abandoned projects and that those projects were awarded based on considerations given to friends even when they do not possess the needed technical knowledge.
“The repeated practice in Nigeria is that once new people are in office, the policies or programmes of the previous administration are abandoned. This unwillingness to ensure policy continuity is the root cause of abandonment of projects.
“The desire for ego credit taking, rather than genuine service delivery was behind the drive for new projects and abandoning of old ones.
“Factors such as poor planning, inadequate budgeting, delay in releasing project funds, which lead to project execution delay, increased contract cost variation and contract splitting in order to give jobs to friends are the major reasons for project abandonment.”
Nazif revealed that about 11,886 projects, with an estimated cost of N7.78 trillion, have been abandoned in the country.
The lawmaker accused the past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of embarking on a weekly charade of awarding new contracts or re-awarding old ones at higher prices during its weekly Federal Executive Council ( FEC) meetings.
Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East) said the decision of the All Progressives Congress government for zero percent budget system was aimed at eliminating the practice of project abandonment and to curtail fund misappropriation.
The Senate urged the Federal Government to set up a project performance and monitoring task force to punish contractors who collect mobilization and disappear from site. [myad]
