Reps panel queries N5.1b to renovate UN building

Questions state of N27.1b official homes for N’Assembly officers

THE House of Representatives Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday expressed shock over the N5.1 billion earmarked for renovation of a section of the United Nations (UN) building destroyed in 2011 by suspected terrorists.

The committee yesterday also visited the UN building, sites for the residential buildings meant to provide accommodation for the Vice President, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives and their deputies being constructed by Julius Berger, where members expressed dissatisfaction over the work done on the projects, saying the job so far “is not commensurate with the monies already spent” by the FCT authorities.

Officials of the construction firm, Julius Berger, were not on ground to provide answers to some of the questions posed by members of the House panel.

The engineers among the members particularly expressed dismay, saying N5.1 billion earmarked for reconstruction of the UN building as well as N7.1 billion to build official residences for the presiding officers of the National Assembly was too large for a country that its citizens can hardly afford three square meal per day.

According to a member, Ogbeide-Ihama Omoregie (All Progressives Congres – Edo), “the said money for renovation of a single building is too much and even the pace of work is very slow, yet the government has released the sum of N3.9 billion to the contractor. But we cannot say whether the sum is too much or little for now until we get the bill of quantity as requested by the committee.

“It was the same observation for all the sites visited like that of the Vice President’s residential building with the contract sum of N7.1 billion whereas N6.2 billion has already been released with an outstanding of less than a billion.
“Also, the National Assembly residential building for its principal officers was awarded at N27.1 billion with a disbursement of N12 billion.”

The representative of the FCDA, Arch. Musa Ibrahim, a director with the Department of Public Building apologised for the FCT administration’s unpreparedness for the visit due to the limited time the committee availed the authorities.

The official however confirmed informing Julius Berger of the oversight by the House committee.The director said unavailability of funds was the major reason for the delay in the completion of the projects, but expressed satisfaction with the level of work done so far on the visited sites.

Committee Chairman, Herman Hembe, expressed concern over the construction company’s lackadaisical attitude towards the projects, just as he also queried why officials of the firm were not present despite prior notification of the oversight visit by the panel.

Yusuf Buba, who spoke on behalf of the committee chairman, also faulted the huge sums already paid by the supervising agency without commensurate work done by the construction giant.

“So many questions are to be answered. We are not happy with what we are seeing and we promise to get to the root of the matter. We will go back to the drawing board because public funds must be accounted for, especially at this era of change,” Buba vowed.