The House of Representatives on Tuesday set up an ad hoc committee to investigate the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) from 2019 till date and report back to it within six weeks.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion moved by Ndudi Elemelu (PDP- Aniocha/Oshimili), the Minority Leader of the House at the plenary in Abuja.

Moving the motion, Mr Elumelu said there was a need to investigate the alleged monumental fraud and illegalities in FERMA.

He said that while billions of naira were allocated to FERMA yearly for road maintenance purposes, the federal roads across the country had remained bad as most of them had become death traps.

Mr Elumelu alleged corrupt practices included high handedness by the agency’s leadership, over inflation of contracts and award of non-existent contracts.

Others are the massive splitting of jobs and flagrant disregard for procurement laws in the award of contracts, and in most cases, refusal to implement the budget in full.

Mr Elumelu said there were allegations of intentional delay in awarding contracts for road repairs and construction several months after bidding had been completed and successful bidders emerged.

Also, he alleged that most of the contracts were cornered by the management for themselves and their cronies who abandoned sites after collecting a reasonable percentage of advance payment of contract sums.

He expressed worries that if the spate of unbridled pilfery by top government officials was allowed to fester, it would drain the nation’s purse.

(NAN)