National chairman of the Nigerian Institution of Highway and Transportation Engineers, Engr Saidu Hassan, has asked the National Assembly (NASS) to review the acts of professional bodies/councils to enable them to look for alternative sources of funding.
Recently, the federal government said it would stop the funding of at least 30 of the professional bodies and councils by December 2024 whilst budgetary allocations would be stopped for other bodies by December 2026.
Saidu told LEADERSHIP that the move would affect the professional bodies/councils in their budgetary plan.
“When policies are taken, there are consequences of those actions, because there are people that work there through government establishments. They are under normal civil service protection law, and all of a sudden you said you’re going to remove funding from those systems, so what will be the fate of those people?
“So will they give them an option because some of them may either come there for secondment from some ministries. I’m just giving an example. Okay, in some circumstances now, will they give them an option to go back to the ministries and give them another condition of service.
“Funding is one side of it. If the government was funding them and then stopped funding but it does not mean that they will not exist. But the thing is that, what will be the fate of those people that come from the ministries? Because some of these agencies have membership dues which can attract funds for them. Agencies like COREN and the rest of them, it is not only the government that funds them.
“It is not only the government that funds them 100% because we members pay our dues every month, companies that are registered pay their dues annually and other things that their act allows them to seek for funds.
“It is very important that somebody look at the act and study it and understand the real implications of the funding issue.
“So, the move would also reduce the activities of the council because when the funds are reduced the activities would also reduce. There is no way it will not affect them because that is where they do their capital projects. They have to review the acts of these agencies,” he said.
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