The House of Representatives Committee on Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has attributed the disrepair state of roads in the country to inadequate funding for their maintenance.
The committee, therefore, called for improved funding for the FERMA to enable it perform optimally.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital during oversight visits to Kwara, Ekiti, Lagos, Oyo, Osun, Ogun and Lagos states, chairman of the Committee, Engr. Aderemi Hussein, said that financial appropriation to the agency was only 10 percent of what it requires to function optimally.
Hussein, who represents Ido/Ibarapa East federal constituency of Oyo State in the National Assembly, lamented that
FERMA used to be one of the reliable agencies of government.
“Before now, FERMA used to be one of the reliable agencies of government where people have hope on the kind of work that they were doing.
“At its inception, FERMA was properly funded. Engineers were always at work and contractors were equally fully engaged and people were doing quality work that minimised deterioration of roads in our states across the country. But this time around, if you see the extent of damages or deterioration that we have in all our roads infrastructure across the country, it is evident that what they have as a current amount of money that they are using on a yearly basis will not be able to solve their problem.
“This has been what almost everybody in the ministry, in the agency, have been crying about. Even those who are not even engineers, road users, everybody knows that FERMA needed to be supported in order for them to do more”, he said.
Hussein, who said that it is part of the responsibility of the committee to go round to see that all the money appropriated for FERMA for the purpose of road maintenance was spent accordingly, added that the committee was satisfied with the volume of work done in line with 2024 approvals.
“After our meetings with the federal road maintenance engineers, the briefs that we received from the directors and the state engineers in charge, we are quite pleased with the volume of work they have done in line with our 2024 approvals,” he said.
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