Federal Government Owes Road Contractors N2.7trn — Fashola

The Federal Government is owing road contractors over N2.7 trillion for projects executed over the years. Minister of Power, Works and Housing. Babatunde Fashola has said.

He made the disclosure during an oversight assessment visit of the 2017 budget by members of the Toby Okechukwu- headed House Committee on Works to the Federal Ministry of Works.

According to the Minister, a major portion of the debt was inherited from previous administrations and that poor budgetary allocation made it impossible to settle.

The debts, he said are made up of completed projects, inherited claims of previous years and ongoing projects across the country. “N2.792tn is the total contractual liability”, he said.

Fashola also revealed that N265.5bn worth of certificates had been generated for completed projects for the 2017 capital implementation, “We have not paid this money, but we have continued to work. There is no state in the country that one federal road project or another is not going on. We are present in every state and the Federal Capital Territory.

“The difference may be that the projects are not located in places where each of us may want them to be. So, the fact that payment has not been made does not mean that work is not being done”, he added.

He said the generated certificates indicates that 2017 budget performance on roads is 73 per cent and that efforts are ongoing to pay part of the liability.