The House of Representatives has directed the Ecological Fund Office to produce the contractor handling the Erosion and Flood control Project at Kuchiako 1 District of Kuje Area Council in the Federal Capital (FCT), Abuja on or before Thursday.
The House Committee on Ecological Fund which gave the directive during oversight visits to projects carried out by the Fund in Abuja also demanded that all details concerning the project must be made available to it within the time frame.
The Committee had earlier visited the site of the construction of hydraulics structures and road improvement works from Tudun Wada to Karshi Road (phase 1) and emergency surface protection works on the reclaimed earthwork along Tudun Wada Karshi Road, Abuja (phase 2).
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However, the Committee was however disappointed and angry when the contractor handling the project in Kuje
was not on the ground and no information about the project was made available to it during visit to sight.
Chairman of the Committee, Ibrahim Isiaka who expressed displeasure over the attitude of the contractor, said lawmakers were not on a jamboree and ordered that the commissioning of the project be put on hold.
Isiaka warned that if the contractor is recalcitrant, the Committee would take next action by stopping him from taking any job or project in the Ecological Fund through a resolution on the floor of the House.
He said: “The Committee members are feeling that the contractor treated them with disdain. We are just from Karshi and here we are here in Kuje in the spirit of patriotism and nationalism and call to duty by the National Assembly and in line with the provision of the Constitution of what we should do. We are now doing it and you see the frustration. It is so sad to come and meet nobody.
“The only thing we are told is that they want to commission the work. We have seen nothing to commission here and we are going to pass this to the Ecological Fund. The contractor is not responsible to us though but the Fund is responsible to us and answer questions from us because we directly oversight them”.
The lawmaker who observed that the Ecological Fund Office has done well under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, called for oversight of projects carried out by the Fund at all levels of government.
“Of course, the Ecological Fund Office itself under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, we have gone to several project sites and we are short of saying that the indicators are there that there is a paradigm shift totally away from what the ecological fund was known for.
“The 36 states and the FCT benefit from this fund. The 776 local government areas benefit from this fund. I appeal to other levels of government, we cannot directly oversee the states and local governments, but if every level of government does their part, we will get there,” he stated.
