COVID-19 Fund: Reps To Investigate N60bn FERMA Project

Yesterday, the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives decided to monitor the 192 projects that the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) claimed to have completed using N60 billion in COVID-19 monies that were given to it by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.

Recall that this occurred during a questioning session by the committee about the use of N949 million in COVID-19 intervention monies by the Chief Medical Director of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital.

During the Monday hearing, FERMA’s Managing Director, Emeka Agabasi, informed the committee that the organization had taken on 192 projects in the six geopolitical zones and had completed 186 of them, leaving only six unfinished.

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According to him, thirty of the projects were in the North-West, thirty in the South-West, thirty in the North-South, twenty-seven in the South-East, and thirty in the North-East.

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But the materials that the FERMA chief presented did not impress the lawmakers.

Subsequently, the committee resolved to inspect the projects through a tour.

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Additionally, during his appearance before the committee, Prof. Henry Ugboma, the CMD of the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital, disclosed that the hospital administration had been given N949 million in five instalments.

Bamidele Salam, the head of the House Committee, asserted that the money given to the hospital’s management went above what the National Assembly had authorized.

Subsequently, the committee requested that he furnish all the records pertaining to the money obtained, the contracts granted, and the endorsements from the Federal Executive Council and the Bureau of Public Procurement.