The House of representatives Tuesday resolved to investigate the federal government’s failure to pay monies allocated for local contractors in the 2017 budget.
It also urged the ministry of finance to look into the indebtedness and source for fund to clear the backlog.
These resolutions followed an adopted motion sponsored by Hon. Magaji Da’u Aliyu in the plenary.
In his lead debate on the motion, Magaji said the central bank of Nigeria, CBN, and debt management office reports had disclosed that the federal government owes N9.1trillion to local contractors for the past three years.
Aliyu also recalled that the sum of twenty billion naira (N20,000,000,000,00), was earmarked in the 2017 budget to settle the debts owed the contractors and other liabilities.
It further wondered why the monies were unpaid even as the ministry of finance had even sourced for funds from commercial banks and capital market through “sukuk” to finance the 2017 budget deficit and meet other obligations.
The lawmakers said as the country just exited recession, it was the responsibility of the government to boost the economy by paying the contractors which in turn will create employment and improve the purchasing power of the suffering Nigerians.
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