Fashola: Only N38.9bn approved for rural electrification

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, yesterday told members of two House of Representatives panels that only N38.9 billion was approved by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the Rural Electrification Scheme against N42bn as claimed in some quarters.

Fashola said out of the amount, N9bn was appropriated in the 2017 budget and that the ministry was under obligation to provide 15 percent of the total sum for the contractors to begin work.

This is even as the Managing Director of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Damilola Ogunbiyi, said there was nothing fraudulent about the contract as all due processes were followed in the award.

She told the committees on power and public procurement chaired by Dan Asuquo and Wole Oke respectively that the scheme was planned for federal universities, and that all the processes were duly followed.

“REA is an agency charged with the mandate of providing electric power to rural, unserved and under-served communities. I would promptly add that the regrettable allegations leveled against the agency regarding the award of contracts for the Energizing Education Programme are largely predicated on misinformation.”

Fashola accused the joint committees on power and public procurement of engaging a consultant who was an interested party in the matter they are investigating.

But the chairman of the public procurement committee, Oluwole Oke (PDP, Osun), in his response, said the two committees reserved the right to engage any consultant.

Some members of the panel insisted that due process was not followed in awarding the contract and that there were other irregularities associated with it.