NSC unable to access part of 2014 budget, spends N663.76m on stadia maintenance

THE National Sports Commission (NSC) has revealed that it has not been able to put some of the facilities it controls in order because of the difficulty in accessing more than N659.908 million from its allocation for the last quarter of 2014.

The commission also says that it has not been able to also access N77.147 million, out of the N878.191 million released to it in the 2014 fiscal year.

Making this disclosure while defending the NSC’s 2014 budget at the National Assembly last week, the Commission revealed that it also spent the sum of N663.764 million on the maintenance of the six federal government owned stadia across the country.

From a comprehensive breakdown of the 2014 budget performances, the Sports Commission revealed that out of the total allocation of N1.538 billion for the 2014 fiscal year, only N878.191 million was released to it. Breaking it down, it said the Federal Government released N71.774 million in the first quarter, N654.969 million in the second quarter and N151.447 million in the third quarter, a situation that put the commission’s performance level at 57 per cent.

The NSC Director General, Gbenga Elegbeleye, who presented the figures before the Senate and House of Representatives’ Committees on Sports, noted that “out of the total sum of N878,191,252 cash backed, only N801,044,119 could be accessed. The balance of N77,147,132 was not accessed long before the close of Government Integrated Financial Management Information System (GIFMIS) platform by December 31, 2014.”

Elegbeleye, however, noted that it was able to carry out maintenance works at the six federal stadia n Abuja, Enugu, Bauchi, Ibadan, Lagos and Kaduna, adding that the contract was awarded to M/S A G Michelle, M/S Abade Borno, Lagos, Ojez at a total sum of N663.764 million.

Other maintenance work done with the capital expenditure, the Sports Commission noted, are: “The rehabilitation of National Stadium Package B Abuja, supply of diesel, renovation and furnishing of National Stadium guest house, supply and installation of video watching score board and rehabilitation of swimming pools in addition to other maintenance costs across the six stadia.

“The completion of the Mini Sports Centres in the six geopolitical zones equally awarded in 2010 in Mgbom, Ugwulangwu, Ohaozzara LGA Ebonyi State gulped a total sum of N62.947 million.”