allAfrica.com: Nigeria: New Policy On Projects Approval Coming (Page 1 of 1)

A NEW policy to fast track the execution of government projects is in the offing as government plans to decentralise the approval of projects below N200 million by ministries, agencies and parastatals and in the case of road construction, not more than N500 million.

Under the new arrangement which is expected to come into effect as soon as the enabling law is passed by the National Assembly, such projects would no longer be considered by the Due Process Office before approvals are given as a public procurement section is expected to be created in every ministry, agency and parastatal to handle them.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government yesterday announced the release of N109 billion as first quarter capital allocation ahead of the signing of the 2008 Appropriation Bill.

The Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation is now working on the draft of the proposed bill which is aimed at reducing the bottle necks associated with getting Due Process certification before contracts are approved.

Sources close to the presidency said it "is borne out of the need to cut down drastically on bureaucratic bottlenecks that slow down the processes of approving and awarding government contracts."

Currently, the public procurement bureau otherwise known as the Due Process Office is only able to vet and approve projects ranging between N1 million and N50 million, a development seen by the President Umaru Yar'Adua administration as capable of slowing down the development of the country's infrastructures.

Under the proposed law, the minister or head of any agency that fails to follow the laws or fails to carry out the project would be held responsible.

Sources said: "The president has mandated the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice to work on a bill with a clause that would make it a crime for any minister, head of agencies and parastatals that fails to execute any of the projects for which money is appropriated," adding: "A situation where all government contracts by ministries, agencies and parastatals have to go through the Federal Executive Council before such projects are approved usually slows down the execution of major government projects.

"This administration is in a hurry to make things work. All major approval processes which used to go through the Due Process Office will no longer be so. It is only major projects which are above N200 million.

"In the case of internal ministry activities and in the case of road construction above N500 million that would now have to pass through the Office," the source said.

FG releases first quarter allocation

Mallam Sani Zoro, Special Assistant to the Minister of Finance, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, said yesterday that the release of the N109 billion capital vote was part of the drive to improve on the performance of the 2007 budget which stood at 71 per cent.

With the release of the warrants, Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) can now commence their capital projects, without having to wait for the signing of the 2008 Appropriation Act by the President.

The President and the National Assembly are yet to agree on certain provisions of the budget, particularly to the mandatory clauses.

"The ministry adopted this line of action in compliance with the provision of Section 82 of the 1999 Constitution and Section 418 of the Financial Regulations of the Federal Government.

"Both provisions authorise the issuance of a General Warrant for payment to be made out of the Provisional Development Fund (PDF), in the event of a delay in passing the annual budget. The release will also be gazetted as required by law," the statement said.

Mallam Zoro said, however, that the release only covered capital projects contained in the 2007 budget, and does not include new projects contained in the 2008 budget - which is yet to be finalised.

"The management of the Federal Ministry of Finance decided on this measure in order to make up for the lost period already suffered by the late commencement of the implementation of the 2008 budget, especially as the first quarter of the financial year comes to a close," it added.

FG committed to due process in budget passage - Usman

And addressing journalists at the Annual General Meeting of the Nigerian Economic Summit in Lagos yesterday, Dr Usman said the Federal Government, though committed to prompt passage of the bill, remained committed to due process.

Speaking on the strategy of the Federal Government to address the poor state of infrastructure, he said: "The current state of physical infrastructure in the country has become a major challenge. There is, therefore, a critical need to spend on very important infrastructure: security, power, transport (road and rail and water), and the Niger Delta.

Estimates suggest that infrastructure investments of up to $40 billion are needed during the next six years to achieve the growth objectives of Vision 2020. The government alone cannot meet this significant amount of investment required, due to:

i) funding problems; and (ii) limited capacity to design, cost, implement and manage an investment of such magnitude within the envisaged period.

"In this regard, the private sector's involvement in the form of Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), is essential to meet the targets on infrastructure investment. This will help to solve: (i) the financing issue;

(ii) the problems of limited capacity and help in enhancing the capacity of the public sector in project design, formulation, implementation and monitoring; and (iii) the problems of sub-standard projects."

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