The Fiscal Responsibility Commission says it verified N1.096 billion worth of projects in Federal Medical Centre Nnewi, Anambra.

This is according to a statement by the verification team leader in South-East, Charles Abana.

Mr Abana said the projects inspected included the administrative block at the permanent site, the GOPD Block, and the male surgical and obstetric wards.

According to him, the main purpose of the verification exercise is to confirm the existence of the projects, the amount expended, and the level of work done.

“Another reason for embarking on this exercise is to verify and ensure that the budget was derived from the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), which is the basis for the annual budget preparation,” he said.

He said that the FRC team observed that some of the contracts inspected were time overrun due to insufficient funding.

“Also, the FRC team verified all documents relating to how the contracts were awarded and the audited financial accounts of the centre. The team advised the FMC management to endeavour to remit twenty per cent of their internally generated revenue into the Consolidated Revenue Fund,” he said.

FRC began verification of the federal government’s N2.9 trillion capital projects across the country on Monday.

FRC chair Victor Muruako urged the verification team to carry out the assignments with great diligence and purpose.

“Ensure that you verify the actual existence of the projects as well as monitor the progress of the work done so far. The verification exercise is further designed to give a fillip to President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda in the area of prudence, value-for-money and transparency.

“The effort is to meet the yearnings of the people,” he said. 

(NAN)