Housing Ministry To Create Task Team On Properties, Lands, Ground Rent In States

Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development is planning to create task teams in every state of the federation to ensure the proper audit of the ministry’s properties and lands as well as look into the collection of ground rents on the properties.

The permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, Dr. Shuaib Belgore stated this during his interactive session with the 36 states and FCT Federal Controllers of Housing, held at the Ministry’s Headquarters in Abuja.

Belgore explained that the task team will include the controller in every state, representatives from the state and Federal Housing Authority, with the surveyor general of the federation as the chairman of the Task Team.

He assured them of his readiness to provide them with the resources they would need to execute their jobs so that they would not have an excuse for not doing them correctly, adding that a portion of the revenue will be retained for fieldwork and evaluation.

On the relevance of the assignment, he stated that field audits and professional oversight will ensure quality and efficiency, stressing that the importance of regular  field supervision and open communication by the controllers would provide needed updates to the headquarters on state-level activities.

While charging the states’ controllers on teamwork for the ministry to be effective in the discharge of its mandate, he described teamwork, hard work, and quality in project execution as essential elements to achieving successes.

He acknowledged the vital role of the Federal Controllers in coordinating the ministry’s projects in the states and ensuring their seamless execution.

While expressing concern over the ministry’s human capacity challenges, given that  many officers were close to retirement, he mentioned that the ministry is planning to engage experienced professionals and implement training and mentoring programs of which the Federal Controllers will be involved in field training due to their wealth of experience.

On their part, the Federal Controllers requested the Ministry to renew the contracts of facility managers for projects in the states to avoid being vandalised by miscreants.