House of Reps to investigate Constituency Project Implementation in the Last 10 Years
Honourable Hsasan Abubakar Fulata, Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, said there is no going back on the decision of the House of Representatives to investigate the controversies surrounding the implementation of the constituency project for the last 10 years.
In an interview with our Correspondent, Tuesday, Fulata said contrary to the position of the executive arm of government that N1 trillion has been spent on constituency projects since 2009 till date, what has been released from the Ministry of Finance may not be above N500 billion while the implementation based on the fund released is within 35％ to 70％.
In his words: “We want to know what has been happening to the constituency projects for the past 10 years. For example in the 2019 budget, the implementation of constituency project as at now (December 2019) is zero. By 31st December the life circle of 2019 budget will come to an end. What happens to the fund.
“This has been the trend over the years. Members/senators only nominate projects to be located in their constituencies in respect to the yearnings and aspirations of their constituents but these projects are hardly implemented up to 70％ by the executive arm through the MDAs. So, where is all the money that have not been utilized over the years by these MDAs. This is what we want to know”.
Following motion by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, Hassan Fulata and four other members on “The Need for Refund of Unspent Budget Funds”, the house called on all Ministries, Departments and Agencies to ensure remittance of all unspent budget funds on or 31 December 2019 to treasury.
The House also set up an Ad-hoc Committee to investigate the amount of unspent constituency projects fund not remitted in the last 10 years, identify the defaulting agencies and report back within eight months.
In another development, a Bill for an Act to Establish the College of Education Birniwa, Jigawa State, Tuesday, scaled through the Second Reading in the Green Chamber.
The bill which was sponsored by Hon. Hassan Fulata, representing Birniwa/Guri/Kiri-Kasamma Federal Constituency of Jigawa State, if passed into law will lead to establishment of the college of education in Birniwa, Jigawa State.
