The federal government yesterday attributed the delay in the execution of capital projects as captured in the N6.06trillion 2016 budget to slow procurement process and low revenue generation.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, who made the disclosure to the Senate Committee on Appropriation, said the procurement procedure problem arose from the six months requirement for procurement process on execution of new projects as provided for, in the Public Procurement Act.
According to him, ‘no new project is ripe for any capital releases because of the six months of procurement process including advertising and so on. It is only existing projects which already met the criteria for the various procurement stages that are qualified for capital releases”.
On the problem of low revenue, he said the overall revenue for the first quarter, was about 55 per cent of the projected revenue expectations which according to him, was caused by agitation in the Niger Delta by militants and earlier difficulties faced by importers in accessing foreign exchange.
“The bulk of the problem of low revenue generation came from militant agitations in the Niger Delta which affected oil production which prevented us from reaching the 2.2 billion barrel even though the price is going up.
Today.ng
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