Okonjo-Iweala, Housing Minister Trade Blames over Non-payment Of Contractors

The minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her Land and Housing counterpart, Mrs. Akon Eyakenyi, have differed sharply on the delay in the payments for completed projects in the Land and Housing sector in the last three years.

The Association of Lands and Housing contractors, led by Alhaji Lawal Adewale, had taken its protest of non-payment to the Federal Ministry of Finance, demanding the immediate release of funds to pay members on projects completed under the MDGs between 2012 and 2014.

Making his presentation before Dr. Okonjo-Iweala, at the conference hall of the Finance Ministry, Alhaji Adewale expressed the association’s displeasure at the delay in paying its members who had successfully completed projects on schedule.

He told the minister that the association had decided to take its protest to her door steps, especially as the Federal Ministry of Housing had disclosed that between 2012 and now the ministry had not received funding from the Finance Ministry.

However, Okonjo-Iweala expressed shock, explaining that money had been released several times to the MDAs for the payment of local contractors.

She said: “Please go back to the Federal Ministry of Lands and Housing where you executed the projects. We have released various sums of monies including the recent one in the last two weeks; perhaps the ministry did not prioritize you in their payment.”

The minister however assured the contractors that they will be paid as soon as funds are made available, stressing that the housing contractors are not the only ones involved as government is currently owing over 1, 000 local contractors across all MDAs.

Lands and Housing minister, Mrs. Eyakenyi, on her part, faulted Okonjo-Iweala’s assertion that funds had been released to pay contractors.

She said: “I assumed office in March 2014, inheriting the payments of liabilities in the ministry between 2010 to date, and since then concerted efforts have been made by the ministry to settle these debts’.

Addressing the contractors in her office in Mabuchi, Abuja, she said letters had been written to the minister of finance demanding the release of funds to pay the accumulated liabilities in her ministry, to no avail.

‘For instance, the last letter to the finance ministry was dated March 4, 2015 demanding the release of N30 billion to pay contractors from 2010 to date. I am going to see the finance minister on this, or when we meet at this week’s FEC meeting. I will remind her of this latest letter.”

Source – LeadershipNg