Leadership (Abuja)
Philip Nyam and Adesuwa Tsan
8 November 2009
Abuja — The House of Representatives has alleged that the management of Skye Bank and Fin bank Plc were frustrating on going efforts to ensure timely execution and completion of some Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) projects across the country. This is just as the Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Hajia Amina Az-Zubairu has disclosed that the sum of N47.1 billion has been approved for the execution of MDGs Quick-wins projects while all contracts that could not attain up to 20 percent by end of October 2009 are being processed for termination.
The House had last Wednesday bemoan the non-implementation of the 2008 and 2009 budgets of the MDGs directing the MDGs office to immediately award all contracts for which funds had been appropriated for or face a zero allocation in the 2010 budget. But Chairman of the House committee on MDGS, Hon Saudatu Sani at a joint press briefing with the senior special assistant to the President, in Abuja at the weekend, exonerated the MDGs office and attributed the slow pace of implementation to the banks. She accused the two banks of making it difficult for contractors to access funds meant for the MDGs projects even as she appealed to their managements to as a matter of national interest cooperate with the MDGs office and contractors to ensure early completion of projects. "The banks have become the bottlenecks. MDGs are working but these banks are frustrating the contractors, particularly, Finbank and Skye Bank. I will not hide it, no matter who owns these banks", she stated. Sani explained that the Federal Government has not been allocating enough funds for MDGs projects, which she noted that out of the $1 billion contribution recommended by the Paris Club of Debtors and agreed upon by Nigeria during the negotiation of debt repudiation, Nigerian government still conLagostributes only N110 billion annually for the execution of various developmental projects.
Giving account of her stewardship, Hajia Az-Zubairu disclosed that "All contractors that did not take up their contracts have been terminated and the contracts re awarded. Contractors that are not making good progress are being compiled. All contractors that have not achieved up to 20 percent by end of October 2009 are being processed for termination" She blamed the introduction of e-payment system as one of the challenges facing the MDGs. "The introduction of e-payment came with a lot of challenges. Payments were returned on account of incorrect data from contractors or incorrect banking details. "Initially all payments were domiciled at the CBN but due to delays occasioned by the volume of transactions involved in the Quick Wins Projects, efforts were made to migrate payments to commercial banks to ease payment bottlenecks" She disclosed that two major banks that compelled some of the contractors to open account with them before releasing the monies have been de-listed and replaced with new ones in order to fast track the release of money to contractors. From the N21.407 billion earmarked for the execution of MDGs projects in 2009, the sum of N5.45 billion was approved for 106 Senatorial districts; N11.52 billion for the 360 federal constituencies; N530 million for consultancy and N3.907 billion for special consultancy projects while N23.991 billion was provided for in the 2008 budget.
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