Federal Ministry of Works and Housing has budgeted at least N3.814 billion for inspection of various projects across Nigeria in the 2023 federal budget which was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday.
The money is different from specific funds budgeted for different capital projects being undertaken by the ministry in the N21.83 trillion federal budget.
Both chambers of the National Assembly passed the 2023 budget last week after they increased the figure from N20.51 trillion presented by the executive in October to N21.82 trillion, an addition of N1.3 trillion.
Details of the budget show that Ministry of Works and Housing voted different amounts for one and the same subject.
For a start, the ministry under the supervision of Mr Babatunde Fashola voted N7.6 million for monitoring and evaluation of capital projects across the country for Works. Another N4 million was budgeted for project monitoring and verification across the country (Housing).
Whereas N218,605 million was budgeted for specialized assessment and mandatory capital budget monitoring and evaluation to ascertain implementation of projects for works and housing sectors of the ministry, the ministry went ahead to vote another N100 million for underwater assessment of bridges nationwide.
Also, the ministry budgeted N750 million for intervention on internal roads of tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The vote comes after specific institutions have been mentioned and votes provided for them.
For example, the Works and Housing ministry budgeted N500 million for “emergency on roads and bridges nationwide” after provisions were made for named and specific projects in the same 2023 Appropriation Bill.
The ministry will also spend a separate N150 million on technical evaluation of bridges nationwide.
Apart from that, the Ministry of Works and Housing has also budgeted over N1.650 billion for consultations under the budget item of inspection and supervision in a very unspecified manner.
