projects under his ministry.
It said that
in passing the Appropriation Bill, the legislators worked and applied equity in
provision for new and outstanding projects across the country.
In a
statement by its spokesperson, Sen. Sabi Abdullahi, in Abuja, the upper chamber
said that Fashola did not give the public details about the Lagos-Ibadan
Expressway, which was on private finance initiative from beginning.
It said that
Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) and the Federal Executive Council, in 2013,
approved the reconstruction, rehabilitation and expansion of the expressway on
Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) basis, “using private finance initiative”.
“The Federal
Government provided about 30 per cent of the funding while the balance shall be
provided by the private sector.
“The project
was on course for completion by end of 2017 when the private finance initiative
was being implemented, with over 30 per cent completion rate attained as at
early 2015.
“But, in a
blatant disregard for existing agreements, constituted authorities and extant
laws, Fashola on assumption of office, got the government through the ministry
to start voting money for the implementation of the project.
“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,” it said.
It added
that due to concerns and in the spirit of consensus-building and effective
stakeholder engagement, the leadership of the Senate met with relevant
stakeholders, including the Ministries of Works, and Finance.
According to
it, it was agreed that we should give the Private Finance Initiative a chance
to complement government’s resources in the delivery of critical infrastructure
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 that work does not stop
before the funds from the private sector start coming in.
“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,” the senate said.
It explained
that what was necessary was the need for private funds for some of the roads,
particularly those with high potential of attracting private investors.
It said,
“With private sector finance initiative, the rehabilitation of the road can be
completed on time because full funding will be provided and there will be more
certainty.
“The
minister’s statement is in bad taste.”
The
statement said that the National Assembly acted in the national interest to
ensure that equity and fairness were achieved in the distribution of projects.
The senate
said that it also ensured that all sections of the country had representation
in the national budget as guaranteed by the Constitution.
Similarly,
the House of Representatives said that Fashola peddled “inaccuracies,
misleading and calculated mischief” about the 2017 budget.
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