By Tony Obiechina, ABUJA
The Fiscal Responsibility Commission FRC) will on Monday begin the physical verification of selected federal government capital projects across the six geo-political zones of the country.
According to a statement by the Commission’s Acting Head of Strategic Communication, Bede Anyanwu on Friday, the projects earmarked for the first leg of the exercise are located in the North-East, North-West and North-Central zones of the Country.
Addressing the North-East verification team at a meeting in Abuja, the Acting Chairman of the Commission, Barrister Victor Muruako enjoined all the teams to carry out the assignments with diligence and sense of responsibility as the exercise is one of the core mandates of the Commission.
He urged them to verify the actual existence of the projects as well as monitor the progress of the work done so far to ensure that there is value for money released for the projects.
Muruako also stated that the verification exercise was designed to be in tandem with the ‘Next Level’ agenda of the present administration in the area of prudence, accountability, and transparency in the efforts to provide public goods for Nigerians.
He explained that the exercise must also be done within the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), in order to ensure that government embarks on projects that it had the ability to fund.
He further said that verification exercise is also to determine projects that needed funding in line with the Completion targets and to reduce to the barest minimum approvals for new capital projects for Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) where the existing indebtedness to contractors runs in billions.
According to section 18 (1) of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), 2007, “The Medium Term Expenditure Framework shall be the basis for the preparation of the estimates of revenue and expenditure required to be prepared and laid before the National Assembly under Section 81 (1) of the Constitution”.
The Act further stated that the Medium Term Expenditure Framework shall contain:“A Micro-Economic Expenditure Framework setting out the macroeconomic projections for the next three financial years, the underlying assumptions for those projections and analysis of the macroeconomic projections and an evaluation and analysis of the macroeconomic projections for the preceding the three financial years”.
Some of the projects earmarked for verification in the North-East include the Federal Medical Centre, Nguru, construction of Maiduguri and Damaturu Prisons; and the Administrative Complex with inbuilt cells and Armoury for Gombe State Command among others.
