Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
The Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance in charge of Special Duties, Mr Aliyu Ahmed has commended the Bayelsa State government for its infrastructural development efforts, particularly in the area of road construction.
Mr. Ahmed who was accompanied by some government officials, gave the commendation on Tuesday during an inspection tour of some federal road projects in the state.
Citing the intervention work on the Yenagoa-Oporoma federal road project by the state government, which he noted that it was highly commendable as the roads are going to be connecting far flung communities in the state.
His words: “Based on our initial assessment, I will say that Bayelsa state has tried; they have done a fairly good job and the rest will be in our reports and we will convey it to our principals when we get back to Abuja.
“We have gone round and we have seen all the works done and they have done a fairly good job.”
Mr. Ahmed explained that, the visiting team to Bayelsa was an inter-ministerial committee made up of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Projects and National Planning, as well as the Cabinet Affairs Office and the Federal Ministry of Works to inspect federal roads that the Bayelsa state government had intervened.
The permanent decretary further stated that their visit was also to verify the claims made by the state government on the intervention on federal roads with a view to reimbursing the government.
According to Mr. Ahmed, the committee has carried out an on-the-spot assessment of such federal road projects and will write a report and make appropriate recommendations to the Federal Government.
“This is a cabinet committee constituted by the Federal Executive Council. It is an inter-ministerial committee, especially this one visiting Bayelsa state which comprises the Federal Ministry of Finance, Projects and National Planning.
“The committee is also made up of the Cabinet Affairs Office and the Federal Ministry of Works. We are here to inspect federal roads that the Bayelsa state government intervened.
“That is, they reconstructed certain roads which belongs to the Federal Government and they are claiming certain amount on those roads.
“So, our mission here is to assess and verify some of those claims and then write our reports back to government so that Bayelsa state can be reimbursed for the expenses they have incurred on those roads.”
Mr. Ahmed listed the Yenagoa-Oporoma road, Ekoli bridge, access road leading to the bridge and the Mbiama-Yenagoa road as some of the projects inspected by the committee.
The committee was accompanied on the inspection tour by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Government House, Yenagoa, Hon. Peter Akpe; the immediate past commissioner of Finance in the state, Maxwell Ebibai and officials of the state Ministry of Works and Infrastructure.