By IKENNA OSUOHA

The House of Representatives has mandated the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Shamsuldeen Ogunjimi to provide the spreadsheet detailing the payments made to contractors as part of the payment N2.4 trillion approval.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the N2.4 trillion is part of payment by the government for project implementation.

The request followed the confirmation by the Office of the Accountant-General that about N2.4 trillion had been approved for payment to contractors.

This is contained in a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Deputy Speaker, Chief Levinus Nwabughiogu in Abuja on Monday.

Similarly, the parliament also urged the contractors on projects authenticity, emphasising the need for scrutiny to ensure that payments were made for legitimate and completed projects,

The aim, he said, Is to prevent situations where payments are made for projects that do not benefit citizens.

Speaking, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, said the parliament welcomed the government’s approval of payment of contractors.

Kalu, who is also the Chairman of the Ad hoc Committee on Budget implementation, said that a follow-up meeting has been scheduled for Oct. 5, for further appraisal of the agreement between the government and contractors.

“You may recall we had the first meeting on the 4th of September, borne out of the desire to attend to what took them to the streets, because they were protesting.

“So, we decided to use the instrument of legislative diplomacy to do an intervention, which actually worked. We succeeded in getting them out of the streets after so much negotiation on the phone,” he said.

The deputy speaker who affirmed the parliament’s commitment to the Nigerian people, said they brokered peace between government and contractors.

According to him, “So, today, the Ministry of Finance is represented by the legal adviser, and the Accountant General’s office was represented by the Director of Funds, as well as the Chief of Staff to the Accountant General.”

He explained that during the appraisal, they were able to find out that, 25 per cent of the payments as agreed have been done within the two weeks.

Kalu confirmed that from their intervention, nothing has been done about the cash back and the warrant for the remaining months that the contractors complained about.

“We invited the bureaucrats to respond to that, and they said, yes, they have about N2.4 trillion that was approved for payment, and out of this amount, they have paid up, leaving only 160 billion unpaid out of N2.4 trillion,” he said.

He therefore commended the government for having approved such an amount of money irrespective of the economic challenges, saying: “Within eight or nine months of this government, under the reform we are going through, and the stress we are going through,

“To be able to approve this amount of money for the payment of contractors shows that the government is a listening government.”

Kalu said that the contractors left the meeting with a feeling of relief and satisfaction that steps were being taken in the right direction. (NAN)