‘Why Nigeria is littered with abandoned projects’

Head, Monitoring and Evaluation, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Mr Moshood Olatijani, has identified poor budgetary allocations and implementation of projects as part of the reasons there are lots of abandoned projects in Nigeria.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja, while briefing the press on the forthcoming project monitoring exercise to be embarked upon by the commission, he said most times, funds are allocated for the first phase of a project in the nation’s budget but that when the budget for the next year is presented, funds for that same project will not be included in it which will make the contractors to abandon the project.

The commission will inspect 43 projects in the six geo-political zones of the country.

He added that sometimes, the projects are included in the budget but funds are not appropriately implemented, hence a project that is supposed to last for two years will stretch to five or six years.

Olatijani said the commission also lacked funds to enable them carry out project monitoring tours which will enable them visit the sites, know their challenges and report back to the government for prompt action.

“As you can see, we are mandated to go for three monitoring visits in a year’s but this is the first and only one we will go for this year,” he said.

He lamented the lack of cooperation from Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA’s) in providing the commission with information on the projects they are handling and suggested that the act governing the commission be amended to include penalty for any MDA that refuses to provide information requested by the commission.