The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) is set to begin physical verification of selected federal government capital projects valued at N2.9 trillion across the six geopolitical zones of the country.

The executive chairman of the commission, Victor Muruako, made this known in a statement by Bede Anyanwu, head of strategic communication directorate in Abuja, on Saturday.

Mr Muruako enjoined the officials who will be going for the exercise to carry out the assignments with great diligence and a sense of purpose, as the exercise is one of the core mandates of the commission.

“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 areas of prudence, value for money and transparency.

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

The chairman said that the verification must also be done within the ambit of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF).

According to him, the reason for this verification exercise is to ensure that the government embarks on projects that it can fund.

He said that the verification exercise is also to determine projects that need funding in line with the completion targets.

“With the MTEF, cases of abandoned projects will cease to exist.

“The aim is to reduce approvals for new capital projects for ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), where the existing indebtedness to contractors is billions of naira, to the barest minimum,” he said.

Some of the projects earmarked for verification include the rehabilitation of the Bende-Arochukwu-Ohafia road and the dualisation of the Sapele-Ewu road in Delta.

Others include the dualization of the Lagos-Otta road in Lagos State and the construction of the NDLEA zonal (Area) command in Igumale, Ado/Okpokwu, and Benue, among others.

(NAN)