N38bn Budget For Road Repairs Inadequate – Senate

The Senate has described as grossly inadequate, the N38bn earmarked for federal road repairs in the 2021 budget.

The red chamber said nothing meaningful could be achieved by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency across the country with the amount proposed for it.

Chairman of the Senate Committee on FERMA, Senator Gersome Bassey, who stated this on Friday, explained that that the country required N400bn annually to maintain the federal roads across the country.

He said, “For the 35 kilometres federal roads in the country to be motorable at all times, the sum of N400bn is required on yearly basis for maintenance.”

Bassey insisted that the N38bn earmarked for maintenance of over 35,000 kilometres federal roads across the country would not give Nigerians the desired results, hence should be reviewed upward.

He said, “What the committee submitted to the Appropriation Committee in the 2021 fiscal year is the N38bn proposed for it by the executive which cannot cover up to one quarter of the entire length of deplorable roads in the country .

“Unfortunately, despite having the power of appropriation, we cannot as a committee jerk up the sum since we are not in a position to carry out the estimation of work to be done on each of the specific portion of the road.

“Doing that without proposals to that effect from the executive, may lead to project insertion or padding as often alleged in the media.”