Fashola Raises Alarm Over Ministry's 2017 Budget Irregularities

Mr Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, has raised alarm over the insertion of projects outside the purview of his ministry in the 2017 Appropriation Act by the National Assembly.

Fashola, a senior advocate, said it was unfair to the Executive arm for the inclusion of such projects after public hearings on the budget and defence of the fiscal estimates by the ministries.

"What I have in my budget now is primary healthcare centres, boreholes," he said at an interactive session with editors on Thursday.

"That was the meeting we had with the Acting President and that was the reason why the budget was not signed on time.

"We were ask to complete those abandoned projects; the budget of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway was reduced by the National Assembly from N31 billion to N10 billion.

"We are owing the contractors about N15 billion and they have written to us that they are going to shut down.

"Also, the budget of the 2nd Niger bridge was reduced from N15 billion to N10 billion and about N3 billion or so was removed from the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road budget." Read more