The President of the Senate, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki, has stated that the trial of a former National Security Adviser, retired Colonel Sambo Dasuki, over alleged mismanagement of $2.1 billion meant for arms is a partial indictment on the National Assembly.
Saraki said the oversight function of lawmakers is under question with such development.
The Senate president, who made this known in his remarks on a motion tagged: “Abandonment of projects: A menace to Development in Nigeria,” added that standing committees in the National Assembly have failed in their responsibilities.
According to him, the 8th Senate must make a difference.
He said: “I want us to ensure our committees do proper oversight.
“The leadership must also do their own part.
“Even the present prosecution of the former National Security Adviser was due to lack of proper oversight.”
Leading debate on the motion, Senator Suleiman Nazir (Bauchi North) observed that public infrastructure account for most of the abandoned projects and that those projects were awarded based on considerations given to friends even when they do not posses the needed technical knowledge.
According to Senator Nazif: “The repeated practice in Nigeria is that once new people are in office, the policies or programmes of the previous administration are abandoned.
“This unwillingness to ensure policy continuity is the root cause of abandonment of projects.
“The desire for ego credit taking, rather than genuine service delivery was behind the drive for new projects and abandoning of old ones.
“Factors such as poor planning, inadequate budgeting, delay in releasing project funds, which lead to project execution delay, increased contract cost variation and contract splitting in order to give jobs to friends are the major reasons for project abandonment.
Nazif revealed that about 11,886 projects, with an estimated cost of N7.78 trillion, have been abandoned in the country.
The lawmaker accused the past administration of Dr. Goodluck Jonathan of embarking on a weekly charade of awarding new contracts or re-awarding old ones at higher prices during its weekly Federal Executive Council meetings.
Senator Gbenga Ashafa (Lagos East) said the decision of the All Progressives Congress government for zero percent budget system was aimed at eliminating the practice of project abandonment and to curtail fund misappropriation.
The Senate urged the Federal Government to set up a project performance and monitoring task force to punish contractors who collect mobilisation and disappear from site.