The Federal Government has ordered buyers of two underpriced public properties in Lagos to pay the differentials of their real values as of 2001.
Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in a memorandum to Federal Executive Council (FEC), stated that the government was short-paid in the transaction on the properties seized by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
Briefing reporters after the FEC meeting in Abuja yesterday, he said the properties, a four-bedroom bungalow on Adeniyi Jones Lagos, and a five-bedroom duplex on Amadasun Street in GRA, Ikoyi, Lagos, were sold for N2 million and N5 million.
He said the government now wants the buyers to pay N18 million for the bungalow and N20 million for the properties, being the cost at which they were valued in 2001.
“They were properties sold as a result of prosecution for narcotics by NDLEA.
“So, they were proceeds of drug crimes, but the valuation process followed the NDLEA Act instead of the Financial Regulations Act. Those policy proposals were approved by the government.
“The first one is a four-bedroom bungalow with two-room boys’ quarters at Adeniyi Jones in Ikeja Lagos, and the other one is a five-bedroom duplex with two-room boys’ quarters at Amadasun Street, GRA Ikoyi.
“They were sold for N5million and N2million respectively in 2001.
“At that time, if they were properly valued, they should have been sold for N18million and N20million respectively,” the former Lagos governor said.
He noted that the NDLEA Act of the time gave precedence to the directives from the Ministry of Justice and regulations were made according to powers under the Act.
“But they did not take cognisance of the procurement law and the financial regulations of the time.
“So, we are now saying, going forward, the financial regulations must take precedence.
“So, those are all proposals that will come as a new law when the Ministry of Finance finishes with them so that you cannot have different regulations for disposal of assets that have been forfeited to the government.
“They must be subject to one superior procedure,” he added.
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The minister said the government approved a policy recommendation to extend the usage life of government assets such as plants, equipment, land, property and machinery.
The new recommendation, Fashola said, will ensure proper disposal while saving government expenditure.
With the new approval, the depreciation threshold for vehicles changes from four to six years.
Plant and machinery would also have a 10-year depreciation period instead of the existing timeframe in the financial regulation.
Also, the ministry proposed a strategic percentage depreciation rate per year for vehicles with two-litre engines and those above two litres.
To ensure proper accountability, Fashola said ministers will now be fully involved in the procurement process by signing off requests for the valuation of properties of their respective ministries, departments and agencies.
“We also proposed that heads of the ministries as accounting officers must sign off now on requests for valuation of properties, especially when agencies are trying to buy properties.
“We’ve seen that sometimes ministers are not even aware that proposals are being made for the acquisition of some type of assets.
“Essentially, the council approved all of the policy recommendations.
“They should go to the Ministry of Finance, who is in charge of making the financial regulations to effect the necessary regulation,” he added.
Construction of vaccines plant to begin soon
Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, said Nigeria will start the construction of an inoculation plant by end of the year.
According to him, local production has become imperative as subsidies from the international community are expected to end within the next six years, which means that the country will have to come up with $300 million to buy vaccines.
“By 2028, the support we used to get from GAVI to subsidise our vaccines will expire. And by that time, we should be producing our vaccine domestically,” Ehanire said.
Biovaccines Nigeria, a company jointly owned by the government and May & Baker is expected to lead the local production of vaccines in Ota, Ogun State.
The vaccine company will produce immunisations to prevent inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV), measles and yellow fever, among others.
N30.1b for road works in FCT, Bayelsa
FEC approved N28.1 billion for the augmentation of roads and other projects in the Wasa District of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
FCT Minister, Mohammed Musa Bello, said: “The council approved the revised estimated total cost of the contract for the provision of engineering infrastructure to Wasa Affordable Housing District in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
“Council augmented the cost of the project to be completed in 42 months by N28,117,904,027.00 from the sum of N56,925,048,940.98 approved in 2014 to a new contract figure of N85,042,952,967.98.
“The district has a total area of 367.11 hectares.”
Bayelsa road contract approved
FEC also approved N2.044 billion for the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for a contract for the construction of internal roads and drainages to the Polaku Gas Hub in Bayelsa State.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said the hub was targeted at encouraging the development of gas processing companies.
“Council approved a contract to Messrs Black Springs Limited to construct internal roads and drainages in NCDMB gas hub located at Polaku in Bayelsa State.
“These drainages and roads and the developments in that hub are expected to encourage more companies to come into that hub to be able to deepen and development of gas.
“This is in furtherance of commitments to the decade of gas as declared by Mr President, from 2021-2030.
“The contract sum for the drainages and the construction of the internal roads at the Polaku Gas Hub is N2.044 billion,” he said.