Senate committee probes Buhari’s $600m spending on new airport terminals – The Committee on Public Accounts of the Senate has vowed to ensure proper utilization of the $600m being spent by the Federal Government on the construction of four new airport terminals across the country.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Matthew Urhoghide, stated this when he led members of the panel on an oversight visit to the new Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja terminal.
Urhoghide urged the Ministry of Transportation and the contractor, China Civil Engineering and Construction Company, to submit relevant documents on the project to the committee’s secretariat by Monday， He said this would enable the lawmakers to ascertain if the funds were judiciously utilised.
The project is being funded with a $500m loan from China and an additional $100m counterpart fund from Nigeria.
The $100m counterpart fund was obtained as a loan from the Debt Management Office at an interest rate of 5.37 per cent for the expansion of the terminals at the Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano airports.
Urhoghide also noted that the panel would pay similar oversight visits to the three other airports before submitting its report to the Senate.
He said, “This committee came on oversight to establish value for money; the project that we have here in Abuja and three other airports, namely Kano, Port Harcourt and Lagos. We have come here to ascertain the expenditure of $100m which is counterpart funding that the Nigerian government entered into with China Exim Bank. This is the first airport we have visited.
“We have asked for the technical details concerning this project vis-a-vis the funds that have been allocated to this project and the status of job completion. We have asked for the details concerning the design, bills of quantity and other details so that we will be able to ascertain that there is value for money in this project.”
