726
The House of Representatives has unveiled plans to investigate allegations bothering on monumental fraudulent and illegal activities being perpetrated by officials of Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA).
Concerns were raised following reported cases of corrupt practices high handedness by the leadership of the agency, over inflation of contracts, award of non-existent contracts, massive splitting of jobs and flagrant disregard for procurement laws in the award of contracts and in most cases refuse to implement the budget in full thereby doing selective implementation of the budget.
The resolution was passed sequel to the adoption of a motion sponsored by the Minority Leader, Hon Ndudi Elumelu, who decried the poor performance of the Agency saddled with the responsibility of ensuring efficient and effective monitoring as well as the maintenance of all federal roads in Nigeria with an objective of keeping all the roads in good and safe condition at all time.
In his lead debate, Hon Elumelu who solicited for the House intervention in line with Section 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), observed that the Agency is under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
“The House is aware that while billions of naira is voted to FERMA yearly for purposes of road maintenance, the federal roads across the country are nothing to write home about as most of them have become death traps, killing hundreds of Nigerians yearly as a result of poor conditions of our roads
” The House is further aware that FERMA which was set up to ameliorate the sufferings of Nigeria road users is alleged to be enmeshed in serious corrupt practices by the management.
” The House is disturbed that the corrupt practices include high handedness by the leadership of the agency, over inflation of contracts, award of non-existent contracts, massive splitting of jobs and flagrant disregard for procurement laws in the award of contracts and in most cases refuse to implement the budget in full thereby doing selective implementation of the budget.
“The House is further disturbed that there are allegations of intentional delays in awarding contracts for road repairs and construction several months after bidding had been completed and successful bidders have emerged thereby compounding problems for Nigeria road users and sabotaging the effort of the government.
“The House is worried that most of these contracts are alleged to have been cornered by the management for themselves and their cronies who abandon site after collecting a reasonable percentage of advance payment of contract sum.
“The House is further worried that if these spates of unbridled pilfery by top government officials are allowed to fester and unchecked it will not only drain the national purse but discredit the perceived fight against corruption by this government in the eyes of the international community, hence the need for this motion,” Hon Elumelu noted.
To this end, the House resolved to set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the activities of FERMA from 2019 till date and report back within six weeks for further legislative action.