The Senate Committee on Marine Transport last week visited Delta State to inspect facilities at the Warri Port and on-going projects initiated by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) in Okoloba and Ekerenkoko where members also inspected the NIMASA’s Science and Technical College, the proposed shipyard and Maritime University in Ekerenkoko in Gbaramatu kingdom of Delta State.
Committee’s Chairman, Hajia Zainab Kure, in this interview with Godwin Oritse, said that the Senate will assist the maritime agency in pushing through these projects.
Excerpts
The Committee has been to Lagos and now in Delta to inspect NIMASA’s projects, what’s your impression?
Well like I said to you earlier, we are on our oversight function to inspect these. We have come, we have seen, and we are going to act on what we have seen.
It is true that we were in Lagos last week, this week, we are here in Delta, but remember that there are two agencies under consideration here in Delta.
From what you have seen so far, is this enough for the Committee to approve 2014 budget ?
We will have to sit down and study the situation properly because it is not enough to visit the project sites and pass their budget.
Now we have seen and we spoken with the contractors on site and we will be able to compare what we saw with the contractors’ claims as this will form the bedrock of what we will consider for 2014.
Because percentages of work done are what we wanted to ascertain and that being the case, we will sit down as Committee to prioritize projects we know can be completed in 2014 and those that can possibly be slowed down so that others can be completed. That is the whole essence of the inspection.
Certainly we must consider the budget, budget must be considered, if not for capital projects, we will consider it for recurrent so consideration of budget is certain.
From what you have seen so far, how would you rate NIMASA in terms of budget implementation?
In terms of budget implementation, I think they are trying their at least they are doing something. But I can not single handedly tell you that NIMASA has done this or that percentage of budget implementation because this is a Committee and there are members whose opinion may be different from mine.
It is true that we were in Lagos last week, this week, we are here in Delta, but remember that there are two agencies under consideration here in Delta.
From what you have seen so far, is this enough for the Committee to approve 2014 budget ?
We will have to sit down and study the situation properly because it is not enough to visit the project sites and pass their budget.
Now we have seen and we spoken with the contractors on site and we will be able to compare what we saw with the contractors’ claims as this will form the bedrock of what we will consider for 2014.
Because percentages of work done are what we wanted to ascertain and that being the case, we will sit down as Committee to prioritize projects we know can be completed in 2014 and those that can possibly be slowed down so that others can be completed. That is the whole essence of the inspection.
Certainly we must consider the budget, budget must be considered, if not for capital projects, we will consider it for recurrent so consideration of budget is certain.
From what you have seen so far, how would you rate NIMASA in terms of budget implementation?
In terms of budget implementation, I think they are trying their at least they are doing something. But I can not single handedly tell you that NIMASA has done this or that percentage of budget implementation because this is a Committee and there are members whose opinion may be different from mine.
-Culled from: http://www.vanguardngr.com
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