Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Senator Bala Mohammed, yesterday revealed that the design and construction of residences and guest houses of presiding officers of the National Assembly, which is almost completed, would gulp over N2 billion.
The minister also hinted that the quarters would be completed and the officials would move in this year.
The minister, who made this known while defending the Ministry’s 2015 budget before the House of Representatives Committee on FCT, said the design and construction of the Vice President’s residence will gulp N500 million as proposed in the 2015 fiscal year.
The contract for the residences of the National Assembly officers, which included other principal officers, was awarded for the sum of N27.192 billion.
The beneficiaries are the Senate President and his Deputy as well as Speaker of the House of Representatives and his Deputy.
It would be recalled that the official residences of members of the National Assembly, including the principal officers, were sold to them in fulfillment of the monetisation policy of former President Olusegun Obasanjo.
This made Senate President, David Mark, and Hon Dimeji Bankole to buy their official quarters at a paltry sum.
According to Mohammed, “the project entails provision of residences for presiding officers of the National Assembly, which comprises main building, ADCs house, guest house, staff quarters, gate house, banquet hall, chapel, mosque and power house.”
“The sum of N1.5 billion was appropriated for this project in the 2014 fiscal year, while the sum of N164,290,688.40 was actually released,” he explained.
He said, “The total sum of N11,815,127,972.42 has been paid to date with a balance of N15,377,649,658.44 required to complete the project”.
The minister stated that the contract for the Vice President’s residence was awarded in 2009 at the cost of N7.065 billion. Last year, the sum of N1billion was appropriated for it while N248,760 million was accessed.
The minister hinted that the project has attained 75 per cent completion.
Mohammed said: “The total sum paid to date on this project is N6.215 billion with the sum of N850,178 as amount required to complete the project.”
Other projects in the pipeline are the completion of Roads B6, B12 and Circle Road within the Central Area in Abuja, construction of Usuma dam and Gurara road; and the provision of engineering infrastructure to Kyami district.
The minister complained that the N12 billion budget ceiling given to the FCT by the Budget Office of the federation will not allow it to operate optimally
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