The Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, has distanced the ministry from a failed $460 million project for the installation of Close-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
According to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), the minister made the clarification while responding to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from the civil society organisation.
Ahmed said that, instead, the Ministry of Police Affairs should be approached for questions regarding the project.
The Federal Government had obtained a Chinese loan facility to the tune of $460 million to facilitate the project.
In 2019, SERAP sued the Federal Government over the non-execution of the project nine years after, urging the Federal High Court to compel the Finance Minister to disclose details of the contractors involved and how much each contractor got.
In a December 2019 ruling, Justice Anwuri Ichegbuo Chikere of the Federal High Court, Abuja granted leave clearing the way for SERAP to advance its case to compel the minister to disclose details of payment of the $460m Chinese loan to contractors.
In a series of tweets on Wednesday, SERAP said that the minister has now responded to the FoI request it directed at her before filing the suit.
The tweets read:
“BREAKING: Finance Minister responds to our FoI request over failed Chinese $460m Abuja CCTV project; says project was executed by Ministry of Police Affairs, which negotiated the contracts & ‘implemented’ the project. The response dated 27/1/2020 came after the suit was filed.
“The response by the Minister of Finance with ref no F/LEG/130102020/CS.1447, read in part: “The role of the Ministry of Finance was limited to the signing of the loan agreement on 20th Dec. 2010. The project was executed by the Ministry of Police Affairs, which was responsible for the negotiations and award of contracts and the implementation of the project. You may therefore wish to direct your request for information on the status and implementation of the project to the Ministry of Police Affairs.”
The Herald recalls that the House of Representatives Committee on Finance led by Hon. James Faleke in November 2019 asked the Finance Minister to clarify through a memorandum why the project had not been completed.
The minister told the committee, during her ministry’s budget defence, that she could not answer questions regarding the project.
This newspaper further recalls that the CCTV project was awarded by late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration to the Chinese firm ZTE in August 2010.
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