2017 Budget :Senate slams Fashola

2017 budget: Senate slams Fashola
Author: Nomso Obiajuru

- The Senate has justified its decision to cut the budget of some major projects of the federal government in the 2017 Appropriation Act
- The senators say projects like the Second Niger Bridge and Lagos-Ibadan Expressway were dropped from the budget because a counterpart funding arrangement for their construction had previously been entered with the private sector
- The legislators attack Buhari's minister of works, housing and power, Babatunde Fashola
The Senate has warned Minister of Works, Housing and Power, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, to stop spreading wrong information and half-truth about the 2017 budget as the legislators worked to ensure equity across the country on all new and outstanding projects.
This was disclosed in a statement by the spokesperson of the Senate, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, on Friday, June 23,
According to the Senate, Fashola did not give members of the public full details about the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, which has been on a private finance initiative from the beginning.
The Senate claimed that minister would prefer an arrangement that allows the Ministry to continue to award contracts and fund the project through Government budgetary allocation at a time when the nation's revenue is dwindling and at an all-time low.
Senate slams Fashola for spreading wrong information bout 2017 budget
Abdullahi stated that the Bureau of Public Procurement, and the Federal Executive Council in 2013, approved the reconstruction, rehabilitation and expansion of the Lagos-Ibadan expressway as a Public Private Partnership project using the Private Finance Initiative, with the federal government providing about 30 percent of the funding while the balance shall be provided by the private sector.
He noted that the project was on course for completion by end of 2017 when the private finance initiative was being implemented, with over 30 percent completion rate attained as at early 2015.
He said that in a blatant disregard for existing agreements, constituted authorities and extant laws, Fashola on assumption of office got government through the ministry to start voting money for the implementation of the project.
He said: "Even as at last year the 2016 Appropriation Act voted N40 billion for the project on the insistence of the Ministry and only N26 billion was released. If we had known, the rest N14 billion could have been allocated to other critical roads across the country.
"In the spirit of consensus building and effective stakeholder engagement, the Leadership of the Senate met with key relevant stakeholders, including the Ministries of Works and finance. It was agreed that we should give the Private Finance Initiative a chance to complement Government’s resources in the delivery of critical infrastructure assets across the country. Hence, in this year's budget, we have engaged with the Government and private sector groups who have assured that they will resume funding of the project. So, we only provided the fund in the budget that would ensure work does not stop before the funds from the private sector start coming in .What we reduced from Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in the 2017 budget estimate was spread on Oyo-Ogbomoso road in the South-west, Enugu-Onitsha road in the South-east, and two other critical roads in the North-east and North-west; and this was done to achieve equity. The Minister should realise he is Minister for the entire country and not just that of Lagos state.
"It is our view that the Federal Government cannot fund the reconstruction and maintenance of all the 34,000 kilometres of roads under its care. We are looking for private funds for some of these roads, particularly those with high potentials of attracting private investors. These include the Enugu-Onitsha road,