FEC approves refund of N148bn to Rivers, Ondo, 3 others for work on federal roads

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved a refund of N148billion expended on federal roads to Rivers, Cross River, Ondo, Bayelsa, and Osun states.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the third virtual meeting of the FEC held in Abuja.

He said the council approved the refund after the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, presented a memo on the matter.

Mohammed said: “You will recall that in 2016, 36 states of the federation sent a very huge bill to the Federal Government and asked for compensation for money spent on federal roads.

“This prompted Mr. President to set up a committee to go and verify the claims of these 36 states, whether indeed these projects were actually constructed and completed in line with the federal government standards.

“The exercise was conducted by an inter-ministerial committee chaired by the Minister of Works and Housing, but also had Ministers of Education, Transportation, Finance, Minister of State for Works, DG BPP and Permanent Secretary Cabinet Office as members.

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“The committee recommended that the federal government should refund N550, 364,297.31 to 31 of the 36 states after they were convinced that, yes indeed, the projects were completed and they were federal government roads.

“But the claims of five other states – Cross River, Rivers, Ondo, Bayelsa, and Osun failed on the grounds that they did not do proper documentation and the committee felt they needed proper documentation.

“So, the committee went back with new terms of reference to ensure that the claims of the five states were in order. That is why the BPP is on the committee.

“So, at the end of the exercise, the committee now reported that the five states – Cross River with 20 roads and one bridge will get a refund of N18,394,737,608.85, Ondo with six roads to get N7,822,147,577.08, and Osun with two roads and one bridge to get N2,468,938,876.78.

“Bayelsa with five roads and one bridge is to get N38,040,564,783.40 and Rivers with three roads and three flyovers bridges will get N78,953,067,518.29.”

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