Senate to support PRODA, decries uncompleted projects in institute

The Senate Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation, yesterday, said it would assist the Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, to realise its mandate as a way of attaining industrial growth and creating employment opportunities for the country.

The committee stated that the 50-year-old research agency had been unable to meet its mandate due to challenges of funding and leadership crises.

It pointed out that such an agency requires a steady inflow of funds to meet its research activities than the envelope system, which had always come in bits and had not helped in its projects.

Chairman of the committee and Senator representing Anambra Central in the National Assembly, Lilian Ekwunife, who led members on an oversight function to the Institute in Enugu, yesterday, underlined the achievements of the agency in the last 50 years, regretting that a comparative analysis of all the money spent on the agency over the years did not meet committee’s expectations.

She stated that, in the last three years, the government budgeted over N25 billion to PRODA and gave the breakdown as follows: in 2020, N8.4 billion was appropriated; in 2021, N9.8 billion and in 2022, N7.2 billion.

She added: “Worrisome are ongoing projects, which seem to have no completion period in sight. It is obvious to us. We have seen projects that lasted for years and we keep paying money for them. Notable among these is the PRODA School Pencil Project. The last time we came, we couldn’t access the place, but two weeks after we left, the minister was at that facility to commission it. It is a shame, a big shame. That is because, when we came, we couldn’t enter; the entire place was overgrown with weeds but we saw the minister commissioning the same thing. It is unbelievable. This project kept reoccurring in the yearly budget without commensurate result on the expenditures made.”

Ekwunife disclosed that Federal Government’s expenditure on this moribund project in the last seven years are as follows: 2016, N16.6 million; 2017, N75 million; 2018, N105 million; 2019, N100 million; 2020, N50 million; 2021, N52.2 million and 2022, N52m. She added that the committee would like to know the contractor, how much he has been paid and the consultant for the project.