21 July 2008
Lagos — Former Minister of Works and chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, recently appeared before the Senate Ad-hoc Committee investigating the Transportation sector. Ogunlewe gave insightful background as to why budgetary deficiency constitutes a major cog to road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance in the country. Olawale Olaleye writes
He probably had nothing to fret about. Even when his summon by the Senate ad-hoc committee had made news headlines, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe, former Works Minister was on the contrary, excited at such opportunity to offer practical and insightful details as to why the Nigerian roads remain what they are today. Allegations of alleged corruption in the ministry were least on his mind. If anything, he could defend his tenure as Minister of Works. But his worries were more on the recurring decimal in that sector. That even after leaving office, the real reasons Nigerian roads are increasingly despicable have not been adequately looked into and addressed accordingly. This, he believed, is worth his headache.
With background information on reports of a commission of inquiry as far back as 1976, Ogunlewe was able to detail a build-up on the status account of the Nigerian roads before the civilian administration of former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999. According to him, the pre-1999 committee had "assessed a total of sixty-three (63) federal highways projects which were abandoned even after obtaining World Bank loan of $250 million by the 30 of March, 1990". The list of the sixty-three roads, he said, was contained in the commission's report.
Quoting from the report, Ogunlewe told the senate committee: "The failure of the sixty-three road projects was due to lack of transparency in the award of the contracts; selection of incompetent contractors, scarcity of bitumen and contracts materials, award without complete drawings, delay in approving tenders and insincerity".
Following this pre-1999 background check, the former minister chose to address strictly, his tenure in office which was between the 17 of July, 2003 and 1st of March, 2006.
Poignantly, the introduction, by Obasanjo of the office of the Senior Special Adviser to the president and Head, Budget Monitoring and Price Intelligence Unit, otherwise known as Due Process as well as the appointment of Dr. Obiagheli Ezekwesili and a separate budget office had come in handy. The two institutions, Ogunlewe noted, provided convenient shield to ministers on the procedure for the award of contracts as well as valuation of contracts and payment.
Thus, in awarding contracts, Ogunlewe explained, there must be budgetary provisions for the project in the Appropriation Act for that year. Besides, the design and bills for the projects must be awarded through advertisement, evaluation and approval of the BMPIU, and then, the Federal Executive Council. Such contract award however, must be advertised and all the Tender documents with the appropriate files, must be forwarded to the BMPIU, provided the contract sum is above N50 million.
Once this is seen through, Ogunlewe said, the Due Process certificate obtained from the BMPIU office must accompany the memorandum to the FEC through the office of the Secretary to the State Government. After the FEC approval is secured, the ministry, Ogunlewe added, prepares the contract document with the consultant who won the design project. Thereafter, the contract is signed and sealed by the minister by virtue of his position as head of the ministry.
Even at that, it does not end here. Payments for contracts also follow due process. Ogunlewe said the certificate issued for payment by the relevant consultant and director, federal highway for the project, will be forwarded to the BMPIU for processing. What it means is that a due process certificate must be obtained before submission is made to the president for approval of payment. The certificate, procedurally, is addressed to the minister of finance and copied the Accountant-General and of course, the works minister. The routine is to ensure transparency and security of public funds, he further explained. Payment is thereafter processed through the office of the permanent secretary as the accounting officer.
Given such strict compliance to due process, Ogunlewe maintained that the minister is by design, isolated from determining the contractor for any project; the contract sum and the release of funds by the finance ministry since the due process certificates are forwarded directly to the finance ministry. Suffice it to say that the minister is assisted by the National Assembly in determining the projects to be included in the budget as well as the amount to be allocated to each project.
However, in 2003, Ogunlewe explained that a total sum of N16,367,000,000.00 (sixteen billion, three hundred and sixty-seven million) was approved in the supplementary budget as capital and recurrent expenditure. In the following year, a total sum of N41,719,799,203.66 (forty-one billion, seven hundred and nineteen million, seven hundred and ninety-nine thousand, two hundred and three naira, sixty-six kobo) was approved. Expectedly, in 2005, there was an increase. That year, a total sum of N68,950,888,998.17 (sixty-eight billion, nine hundred and fifty million, eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight naira, seventeen kobo, was approved in all. The year 2006 is not in contention since he spent only three months in office.
The former works minister noted that it was since 2005 that the six geo-political zones became the basis for appropriation and execution of projects. Thus, a block sum was appropriated to each geo-political zone. It was also at the discretion of National Assembly members to determine the amount of money that goes to their respective zones based on the project appropriated to each zone.
On the whole, Ogunlewe said it is the office of the director of budget that determines funds availability for disbursement through an envelope given to each ministry to specify the amount needed to be expended by the ministry; the National Assembly determines funds allocation; the BMPIU, after satisfying due process requirements determines the preferred contractor and the contract sum for each project. The BMPIU also confirms amount payable to each contractor after directing the ministry of finance to release funds. In turn, the ministry of finance and the office of the Accountant-General confirm the release of funds; while senior civil servants as determined by the permanent secretary, sign cheques at the ministry level.
Taking it from here, Ogunlewe noted that the problems of road construction, rehabilitation and maintenance are attributable to insufficient funding and lack of capacity by contractors. These same reasons, he said, were indicated in the report of the panel on failed and non-performing road contracts in the country between 1976 and 1998. From what was available to him as minister, Ogunlewe maintained that the same scenario had continued between 1999 and 2003 as no funds were appropriated for road maintenance. He said it was an unbelievable scenario since most of the roads have been constructed since the '70s and have also exceeded expiration.
Justifying his argument, Ogunlewe said contrary to media assumptions, only a meagre sum of N116 million was appropriated for Lagos-Ibadan road between 2003 and March 2006 when he left office. This was meant to cover up for the total and extensive rehabilitation of Lagos-Ibadan express road as well as Shagamu-Benin road. "It is instructive to note that no sufficient funding was ever allocated for Shagamu-Benin road. In fact, only N300 million was allocated for the road in 2008 budget. How can this road ever be motor-able?", he asked, passionately.
Sadly, both roads, Ogunlewe explained, were traversed by over 40,000 vehicles of different capacities everyday.
Apart from this, Ogunlewe also identified inadequate funding for road construction. With several instances to buttress his arguments, Ogunlewe said amount appropriated usually have no correlation with the actual contract sum. This particular problem, he stated, "is applicable to all other on-going projects of the ministry of works. Because of our budgetary inadequacies, some competent road construction contractors have left the country. We should and must prioritise the road project within three years. The present system whereby funds allocated have no correlation with the contract sum of the project leads to frustration on the part of both the ministry engineers and contractors", he said, stressing that "Nigerians are the losers for it".
Perhaps, his argument is better understood with the subsequent analysis. Look at it this way: the Owerri-Onitsha road which is in the heart of South-east was put at N44 billion. But with an average of N3 billion appropriated for the project each year, the probable completion period cannot be less than 12 years. Also, consider the Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomosho-Ilorin road project. Put at about N27 billion, the project completion period, Ogunlewe said may also span across 12 years if the N2.5 billion appropriated is anything to go by.
In the heartland of Ogoniland, the Bodo/Boni road has a contract sum of N25 billion. Unfortunately too, with an annual budgeting provision of N2 billion, completion period can also not be less than 12 years, he said. Similarly, the Maiduguri-Doko-Gamboru road project has a contract of about N762 million but with a yearly average appropriation of only about N200 million, its completion period, Ogunlewe notes, is subject to individual inference. What with the rehabilitation of Gushua-Yusufari road that has a contract sum of about N1.7 billion but with annual appropriation of about N500 million, its completion period, he envisages, could not be less than five years.
"My position is that if for instance, we have N180 billion for roads construction in the national budget, the sum should be divided into six; that is, 30 billion per zone. The National Assembly should select only two roads per zone and allocate N15 billion for each road in that zone. That way, the nation will complete at least, two major roads in each zone in four years. Spreading small sums to too many roads in a zone will not lead the nation anywhere", he advised.
Ogunlewe who was senator between 1999 and 2003 reiterated that the country has a network of old roads as well as inadequate funding of new ones. He therefore advised that the best approach to saving the Nigerian roads is through the culture of sustained routine and periodic maintenance. To achieve this, Ogunlewe suggested the establishment by an Act of the National Assembly of a Federal Highway Authority with full powers for construction, rehabilitation and maintenance of Federal Highways and bridges. He also thought of the idea of introduction of roads funds, also through legislation. He said it should be included in the legislation that 50 percent of road maintenance should be executed by indigenous contractors.
Consequently, Ogunlewe advised that the N4 billion road construction equipment purchased for the implementation of public/private partnership initiative must be put in place since the Nigerian society of Engineers has already worked out the modalities.
Besides, indigenous engineering firms, he added, must be encouraged to participate in the design and construction of roads and bridges in the country. This initiative, he said would help the country develop its own human resources for participation in the construction industry. He also noted that the provision of infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Act, 2005 must be implemented urgently for the private sector to participate in road rehabilitation and construction.
This notwithstanding, Ogunlewe would not leave without a parting message. He told the senate committee that his choice title for the memorandum was deliberate. He enjoined the senate to have a critical look at the total cost of ongoing project which he said is amounts to about N1 trillion but with a budgetary sum of 167 billion in the 2007 budget.
This, he held, would enable the senate, on its own; determine how many years it would therefore take to complete all the roads projects in view.
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