(Minna)
Niger State House of Assembly (NSHA) has questioned competency of the competency and skills of the Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Muhammed Ibrahim Panti and his team to manage the affairs of the ministry.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Works and member representing Lavun constituency, Jubril Ndagi Baba,made the observation when the commissioner and his team appeared before the committee in the House.
He came to that conclusion because documents presented by the commissioner, on some of the projects across the state was different from the reality on ground.
“Working documents are confrlicting as if they are not from the same ministry. We have three conflicting documents on the same matter presented before the House and none of them contains the needed information for the oversite functions of the committee,” he said.
Members of the committee contributing to the discussion during sitting said explanations by the Commissioner varied from that of the Permanent Secretary, suggesting that the documents could have been faked or forged since the Commissioner said he could not agree with what was on the documents.
Addressing the Commissioner and his team, Baba expressed disappointment that it took the ministry over a month to present the documents and still had issues on the papers so presented before the committee.
The committee, according to Ndagi expects a more thorough job as a team before presenting documents to the committee, insisting that, “what we are witnessing today only shows sign of incompetence and indications that there would be issues on the projects to be executed.”
Our correspondent reports that going through the documents for the renovation of the Government House, the committee was amazed that the ministry of works was not the one handling the project.
The chairman said the committee was not out to witchhunt anybody but doing its job in the interest of the people.
“Government House is being renovated with tax payers’ money and people must know the project and how their monies were being spent,he said.
The committee members also frowned at the poor handling of the Minna-Lambatta road by the state ministry of works, pointing out that the poorly constructed road had made the state lose huge sum of money spent on the road to the federal government.
Responding, the Commissioner,who admitted that the documents presented before the committee were not accurate and up to date as expected by the House, pleaded for more time for him and his team to put their house in order.
He said him and his team would return to the House on Thursday, for detailed presentation of the projects being handled by the Ministry since his assaumption of office.
