As part of measures to curb excessive spending, President Bola Tinubu has ordered a thorough review of ongoing inherited road projects and other planned procurements, to ensure better budget implementation in the country.
Tinubu also requested an amendment of the legislation on the National Council on Procurement to make it more robust.
This was part of the resolution reached at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting which took place at the State House in Abuja yesterday.
The decision was made one year after the administration assumed office, taking over leadership of the country from the Muhammad Buhari’s administration, following expiration of second term tenure which ended eight years tenure.
Addressing newsmen after the meeting chaired by the president, the Minister of Information and National Orientations, Mohammed Idris, said: “The President has directed that all projects that require additional funding, especially, major projects of the Ministry of Works be looked at once again so that there will be further deliberations on that at the next council meeting.”
Idris stated that most of the road projects were inherited from successive administrations and were not part of the newly approved roads such as the Lagos-Calabar Highway.
Also, the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, said, “Mr President directed that a good basis for performance, especially when it comes to infrastructural development is to ensure that we have a solid Procurement Act to avoid corruption and also stem the tide of abandoned projects.”
The new move by the president could further result in an investigation of actions of previous public officeholders under the President Muhammad Buhari’s administration, considering that many of the projects currently being financed by the Tinubu administration were inherited from the administration.
