President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday expressed concern at the large number of on-going federal projects all over the country.

The president spoke after the Presidential Projects Assessment Committee (PPAC) led by Ibrahim Bunu, chairman of the committee, presented its report at the State House, yesterday.

PPAC disclosed that the Federal Government is currently executing 11,886 projects at the cost of N7.78 trillion, out of which N2.696 trillion had been paid to contractors.

"The figures represent the total responses received from the ministries, departments and agencies, some of whom for reasons best known to them, failed to respond to the committee's request for data on ongoing projects," Mr Bunu said.

The report also stated that, "reckoned in today's prices and allowing for unreported ongoing projects, the total cost needed to complete all projects may well be as high as N8 trillion".

As part of its findings, the committee said corruption in the handling of projects by many self-seeking officers and contractors had led to the massive inflation of costs and undermined the legitimacy of their monitoring and supervision responsibilities.

"Following the committee's indepth assessment of many of the projects, we take no joy in confirming that there is indeed evidence of large scale, widespread institutional mediocrity, deficiency of vision and a lack of direction in project management, which results in poor conceptualisation, poor design and faulty execution," the committee said. "Needless to add that, this has resulted in avoidable losses of billions of naira to the Federal Government. As a matter of routine, contracts are awarded without securing the required funds in the annual budget to ensure their timely execution.[i] Now, with eight trillion naira commitment, and on the basis of the prevailing allocation of about one trillion naira for capital projects annually, it will take the next eight years or so for the Federal Government to complete existing ongoing projects, provided there will be no inflation within the period."
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According to PPAC, factors responsible for the high cost in project financing include "consistent delays in payment to contractors, leading to massive claims for overhead costs, interests and additional costs; poor co-ordination between government officials in the planning and execution of projects; poor planning and conceptualisation of projects, resulting in costly variations and inefficiency in the implementation and management of projects and lack of adequate and efficient municipal services, such as the provision of electricity, transport, security and water supply, all of which contractors [i][/i]have to arrange privately".

Undercutting by agencies

The report also said the project cycle was subverted, as most of the ongoing projects had not been subjected to the normal cycle of conceptualisation, planning, the undertaking of full economic, social and environmental impact analyses, design and procurement, contract execution and maintenance.

It also said the Bureau for Public Procurement Act was undermined and subverted at the MDAs.

The report further disclosed that on occasion, ‘No Objection Certificates' issued by the BPP were revoked without any justification, as well as cases of disqualification of duly pre-qualified contractors in questionable circumstances.

The committee pointed out that there are many uncompleted projects where trillions of Naira has already been spent, including the Ajaokuta Steel Company project, on which $4.5 billion had been spent.

It recommended "the need to streamline and downsize the ongoing projects to a manageable proportion through a well thought out realisation process."

The President welcomed the inventory taken by the committee.

"The huge number of on-going projects all over the country is of concern, considering the financial implications," Mr Jonathan said.

He also said his administration would look at the list while preparing budgets in the future, and thanked the committee for their painstaking efforts at preparing the report.

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