Federal Road Projects: FEC approves N16.7bn refund for Borno govt

The Federal Government has approved a refund of N16.7 billion for the Borno State Government for roads projects executed on its behalf.

The approval came from the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday at the State House, Abuja.

Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the Vice President, Laolu Akande disclosed while summarising some of the memos that came in for deliberations.

He explained that a debt sustainability analysis would be carried out by the Debt Management Office while approval would be obtained from the National Assembly before the money is refunded to the state government.

“Council graciously approved the President’s memo for the reimbursement of funds spent by the Borno State government for federal road projects in the total sum of N16,772, 486.19 which will be processed after a debt sustainability analysis has been carried out by the Debt Management Office (DMO), leading to the issuance of debt instrument and promissory notes in the same value to be approved by the National Assembly,” he told State House correspondents.

It would be recalled that owing to situations where state governments carry out repair works on federal roads and bloat the cost while seeking refunds from the government at the centre, the Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola had directed states to desist from such interventions as the Federal Government would not offset such expenses.