FG to audit all PPP projects, enforce statutory insurance of assets – ICRC

The Federal Government, through the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission(ICRC) is an audit of all Public Private Partnership(PPP) projects to ascertain their performance.

This is contained in a statement signed by Mr. Ifeanyi Nwoko, Acting Head of Media and Publicity, ICRC on Wednesday in Abuja.

Dr Jobson Ewalefoh Director-General, ICRC, made this known when he paid a courtesy visit to the Minister of Interior, Mr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo.

Ewalefoh said the federal government will also ensure that all the projects are insured as statutorily stipulated in the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission Establishment Act, 2005.

He told the minister that the commission was already working on evaluating the performance of all PPP projects as well as enforcing their insurance.

The commission, he said, will train PPP desk officers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as it was already in the works.

He urged the ministry not to relent in bringing projects to the commission or seek clarifications.

“Talking about the audit, we are already putting in place a mechanism to start auditing the performance of PPP agreements that we have signed in the past.

“We do not want to condemn or terminate them, but we want to optimise them.

“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 going to look into very soon. We are going to issue a policy that all assets under PPP must, in compliance with the law, be insured,” he said.

The director general who thanked the minister for being at the forefront of utilising PPP in delivering key infrastructure needs, pointed out that his choice of the ministry for his first official visit was in view of his performance.

The ICRC D-G said that in the past year of the current administration, the minister had taken the highest number of PPP projects to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for approval.

He commended him for not moving to cancel any PPP but rather optimising those that were stalling.

“My people just did a sum of the total amount of investment that has come into this ministry in your time as minister in the last one year and it is over five hundred million dollars.

“So, we cannot thank you enough as a champion of PPP.

“Therefore, we felt it was in our interest to come and say thank you for being our PPP Ambassador and a PPP Champion.

“We are using this opportunity to tell the world that the government of President Bola Tinubu has respect for the sanctity of contracts and to tell investors that their investment is safe,” he said.

Earlier in his remark, the minister commended the appointment of Ewalefoh as the D-G of ICRC.

Tunji-Ojo described the appointment as a clear demonstration of the intention of the government to diversify the economy and allow the private sector to play its role.

The minister added that his qualifications and experience were unquestionable.

He disclosed plans to efficiently leverage PPPs to make key agencies in the ministry self-reliant and exit them from the 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 the 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 the 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.

Tunji-Oji said that the ministry had leveraged on the huge resources of the private sector saying everything we have done in the ministry today are majorly PPPs.

“We cannot ask the 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, and a lot of other PPPs are in the pipeline,” he said.

The minister stressed that PPPs were not only about leveraging on funds but also leveraging on expertise for enhanced productivity and enhanced efficiency.

He assured the D-G that the ministry would continue to collaborate with the ICRC, adding that the commission had always made key technical inputs to the ministry’s projects and fine-tuned them for better operability.

Tunji-Ojo charged the commission to remain steadfast in their role in pushing Nigeria to take its rightful place.