The Federal Government through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), has said that it would conduct an audit of all Public Private Partnership projects to ascertain their performance as well as ensure that all the projects are insured as statutorily stipulated in the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Establishment Act, 2005.
Director General of the ICRC, Dr. Jobson Oseodion Ewalefoh disclosed this when he paid a visit to the Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, on Tuesday.
Ewalefoh assured the Minister that the Commission will take up his charge to train PPP desk Officers in MDAs which it was already doing through its institute and urged the ministry not to relent in adopting PPP projects or seek clarifications where necessary.
“Talking about the audit, we are already putting in place mechanisms to start auditing the performance of PPP agreements that were signed in the past: this is not aimed at condemning or terminating them but to optimize them in the interest of the Nation.
“When it comes to the issue of insurance, of course it is a matter of law for all national assets, both hard and soft infrastructure that are concessioned through PPP to be insured.
“That is one area we are looking into and would very soon issue a directive that all assets under PPP must, in compliance with the law, be insured,” he said.
“From the record of the Commission, the total amount of investment that has come into this ministry in your time as Minister in the last one year is over $500,000,000 (five hundred million dollars). So, we cannot thank you enough as a champion of PPP.”
In his remark, Minister Tunji-Ojo commended the appointment of Dr. Ewalefoh as the DG of ICRC, describing it as a clear demonstration of the intention of the government to diversify the economy and allow the private sector to play its role, adding that his qualification and experience were unquestionable.
The Minister disclosed plans to efficiently leverage on PPPs to make key agencies in the Ministry self-reliant and exit them from government’s budget line.
“We believe that a lot of our agencies should be off budget and we are working towards that, because the resources to government are not even there: this is a country of 230 million people with an increasing population, therefore we have to be innovative in terms of financing.
“We know that the resources of government are limited but the private sector has a lot more resources, all we need is to create the environment and give them the confidence to invest and Nigeria will be a better place for us,” he said.
He said that the ministry had leveraged the huge resources of the private sector, adding that: “Everything we have done in NIS today are majorly PPPs, we can’t ask government for millions of dollars, see the data centre, we have the e-gate, as we speak, we have the Advanced Passenger Information System, the Gap Management System is almost completed, a lot of other PPPs are in the pipeline,” he said.
He stressed that PPPs were not only about leveraging on funds but also leveraging on expertise for enhanced productivity and enhanced efficiency.
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