allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Ogunlewe - Why Nigerian Roads Remain Deplorable (Page 1 of 2)

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.

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