FG seeks solution to high cost of projects
The
Federal Government has directed the Economic Management Team headed by
the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to find a solution to
the high cost of projects in the country.It has also emphasised the need to design templates for determining cost bands and ranges for various types of projects.
The measure is expected to restore sanity to the planning and preparation of capital budgets.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, represented by his Special Assistant on Economic Policy, Dr. Elias Udeaja, disclosed this while declaring open the first national project cost reduction summit organised by the Quantity Surveyors Regulatory Board of Nigeria with the theme, “Achieving value for money in the development of public infrastructure in Nigeria.”
Anyim said, “The government will thus require quantity surveyors to bring to bear their expertise on budgetary planning of capital projects, cost management and cost auditing in the emerging regime, as we cannot achieve value for money without requisite expertise, knowledge and skill.
“I wish to propagate that only qualified and registered engineers and quantity surveyors should be involved in the design, management, costing and execution of road and civil engineering projects in Nigeria. It should not be an all-comers job.”
The SGF also stressed the significance of strict adherence to professional ethics in order to bring down the cost of projects in the country.
According to him, it is the duty of every professional regulatory body to monitor the ethical disposition and conduct of their members so as to guard against collusion and connivance with those he described as unpatriotic elements in inflating the cost of projects.
While noting that the Bureau of Public Procurement was making efforts to bring down the cost of doing business in the country and had already adopted strategies to achieve this, Anyim stressed that the measures included the readiness of final designs before the award of contracts.
He said the need to fight corruption and inflation of contracts necessitated the formation of bodies such as the National Bureau of Statistics, BPP, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission.
Anyim said the QSRB had a role to play in finding a solution to the “disturbing problem” of inflation of projects.
Also speaking at the event, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, represented by Alhaji Abdullahi Ndanusa, lamented the situation where other tiers of government, apart from the Federal Government, had yet to substantially comply with the BPP Act.
He observed that it had become difficult in recent years for government to appropriate adequate funds for its projects due to dwindling resources
