Why most FG projects exceed expected completion periods — FRC

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has said that most ongoing Federal Government projects have exceeded their expected completion periods because many institutions did not have a Medium Term Expenditure Framework to guide their budgets.

The commission also said that proper feasibility studies were not done on project sites before embarking on projects there by leading to variations and revision of contract sums. These were contained in the physical verification report of selected FG capital projects undertaken between April and May 2019 by the commission. It observed that many institutions had so many projects running simultaneously while some of the projects on the whole were poorly supervised.

It also observed that documentation of procurement processes was very poor in most institutions and that most projects suffered from poor funding giving rise to abandonment.

The commission visited 69 capital projects, 12 of which were in the North East zone including the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Maiduguri, Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, and the construction of Damaturu correctionalcentre amongst others.

The commission also inspected 10 projects in the North Central zone which included Barkin Ladi Irrigation project, Plateau State; construction of Auna (Kontagora) earth dam, Niger State; and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital, Kwara State.

In the North West it inspected 11 projects, 13 in the South East, 12 in the South South and 11 in the South Western zone. The commission had earlier announced that it will begin the verification of 95 capital projects across the country from today (Monday), across the six geopolitical zones.