The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has warned states that the federal government would not refund monies they expended on federal projects within their boundaries without securing approval to begin such projects.
This was disclosed by the Minister for Information, Culture and Tourism, Lai Mohammed, after the FEC meeting held on Wednesday. The minister said the FEC had approved a refund of N148,141,987,161.25 to five states – Cross River, Osun, Ondo, Bayelsa and Rivers States — as the amount they spent on federal roads within their boundaries.
In 2016, President Buhari set up a committee to verify federal projects 36 states claimed they executed and sought refund. The committee, at the time, recommended refund of N550,364,297.31 billion to 31 states and denied the requests of five states due to inadequate documentation.
Now, the five states are getting the refund 4-years after they sent the refund request to the federal government and after the project had been verified and documents had been corrected.
“So, the committee went back with new terms of reference to ensure that the five states were in order… 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 a refund of N7,822,147,577.08 and Osun with two roads and one bridge to get a refund of N2,468,938,876.78.
“Others are Bayelsa with five roads and one bridge is to get a refund of N38,040,564,783.40 and Rivers with three roads and three flyover bridges is to get a refund of N78,953,067,518.29,” Mr Mohammed said.
However, the minister warned that in the future, in a similar situation, states which did not secure permission from the federal government before embarking on federal projects within their states would not get refunds.
“The federal government will pay the states, but however, henceforth, if any state takes on federal road, it will not be paid, they will not get any refund.
“Even if you want to pay from your own pocket, you will still need the permission of the federal government and it will be supervised by the federal ministry of works and housing.”
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