November 17, 2017

Mr Victor Muruako, the Acting Chairman, Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), says the agency will commence the physical verification of 43 Federal Government capital projects across the six geo-political zones of the country.

He said this during a press briefing on Friday in Abuja that the exercise would begin on Saturday.

Muruako said the exercise was in line with the mandate of the commission to ensure compliance with the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) in the planning and execution of Federal Government’s projects.

He said the exercise was to ensure that citizens got value for money for every capital project approved and funded by the government.

Muruako said the Act provided for such exercise on quarterly basis, but inadequate funds would allow us to carry out only once in the year.

He said the exercise would be carried out by 50 members of staff, adding that Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) were invited to also take notes and ensure transparency and accountability.

He, however, commended the President for presenting a request for a bill to amend the Act.

“It is an Act that can make a difference if we can adhere to it.

“Many public officials do not comply with the provisions because there are no sanctions attached, but if amended would bring about a lot of changes.’’

Muruako also officially presented the report of the verification of selected Federal Government capital projects that was carried out in 2016.

Mr Moshood Tijjani, the Head, Project Monitoring and Evaluation, said the exercise would ensure that capital projects of the Federal Government were properly constructed to fit the objectives for which they were approved.

He said the verification would help to ensure that the projects existed, find out about the funding for the projects and ensure that they were relevant to the communities.

He also said that the exercise would enable the commission to establish that they were being carried out according to budgetary and Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) recommendations and specifications.

Tijjani said verification was supposed to be carried out with the cooperation of the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), but many of them were did not respond to the information required.

He appealed to the MDAs to cooperate with the commission to ensure that the exercise was done appropriately.

He said plans had been concluded to ensure that zonal reports got ready two weeks after the exercise before the compilation of a comprehensive report in January.