Deji Elumoye
ours be a subject of debate that they will tell Nigerians we received N1 trillion, when that was budgeted, but not released? My message is that we should let them know that while N1 trillion was budgeted for constituency projects, by way of releases, we did not receive that, because what was released was less that 40 per cent.”
On his part, the Deputy Minority Leader, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, said about 50 per cent of the project fund had been released in the last ten years, stressing that the reason why there are so many abandoned projects was because of lack of releases.
“The issue is very important, because words have meanings. In all the papers, report says N1 trillion wasted on constituency projects in 10 years. Of course, Mr. President would have been responding to information given to him. I am a student of public policy analysis. I understand that projects and policies of government go through interrogation.
“When you say N1 trillion is released, it presupposes that the equivalent value of that money should be on ground. There is also a presupposition that this money is given to members. Our responsibility is to make laws and pass budget and once that is done, it goes to the Executive and the execution is the responsibility of the executive.
“You award contract and you pay 50 per cent. What happen to the remaining 50 per cent? How can you complete them? In the 2019 budget, about N220 billion was budgeted for roads and what was released was N45 billion. If you are expecting the value of N220 billion when you give N45 billion, I don’t know what you will see,” Okechukwu said.
Beyond the buck passing, it will be apt for the leadership of the National Assembly to critically study the ICPC report on constituency projects, which informed the President’s statement and see what they can make out of it with a view to making necessary adjustments ahead of execution