Church prescribes own project execution model to govt

Disturbed by the high cost of executing government projects in the country, the Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna Archdiocese, Dr. Manoso Ndanoso, has enjoined authorities to buy into the church’s model that allows for execution of contracts at minimal cost.

During a chat at the weekend in Kaduna where he was represented by the Director, Social Communications, Reverend Father Anthony Ekelechi, said the church’s new secretariat, located opposite the state university on Tafawa Balewa Way, was executed at N280 million through direct labour.

Stressing prudence in deals by the archdiocese, Ekelechi noted that “ because we took it upon ourselves and the Archbishop also took it upon himself, we ensured the completion of the project.

We went the way of direct labor and at end of it all, the project cost nothing more than N280 million.

“It is something government can learn from. Most times, people execute projects mind-boggling amount. So the Archbishop said government can emulate us.”

Besides, the cleric gave an insight on how the money was sourced, pointing out that  “there were some good spirited individuals and groups that supported the building.

”However, 80 per cent of the contract sum was generated internally.”

The spokesman continued: “The current archbishop is the one who initiated the secretariat project, about the first year he came. He saw the need for a better building to allow for better coordination of the administrative activities of the archdiocese.

“The sense behind the building is evangelisation. It is to say that we have the presence of church here, and is a symbol for us. The edifice is named after Archbishop John McCarthy, the first head of the archdiocese.