…task contractors on project authenticity
We want to verify and investigate to know whether these are the people who are paid, or the people who are claiming that they have worked.”
By Deborah Hassan
365Daily– The House of Representatives has directed the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Shamseldeen Ogunjimi, to furnish it with a spreadsheet showing details of payments made to contractors under the N2.4 trillion recently approved by the Federal Government for project implementation.
The directive came after the Office of the Accountant-General confirmed that about N2.4 trillion had been approved for disbursement to contractors.
In the same breath, the House tasked contractors to ensure that the projects for which they receive payments are verifiable, stressing that government funds must not be wasted on paper claims or dubious certificates of completion.
Speaking after a four-hour appraisal meeting with the leadership of the Association of Indigenous Contractors of Nigeria in Abuja on Sunday, the Deputy Speaker of the House, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, who chairs the Ad-hoc Committee on Budget Implementation, said the essence of the scrutiny was to prevent situations where contractors receive billions without delivering value to citizens.
He stated, “One of the things I sent them with was my charge to the Accountant General’s office to give us the spreadsheet of those they have paid. We need to see how the government has paid N2.4 trillion, and see people who are still standing on the street saying that the government is not paying. It’s not giving the government a good image.
“How can we pay N2.4 trillion into the system and the same contractors are on the street? So, we want to verify and investigate to know whether these are the people who are paid, or the people who are claiming that they have worked.”
“I gave them a charge also: on the part of the government, we are putting the pressure on government to pay up, but on their part, they should ensure that what the government is paying for is a job well done. The government is not paying for a piece of paper or a certificate of completion when the jobs are not done.”
Kalu recalled that the committee was set up by Speaker of the House, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, following street protests by contractors over unpaid fees. The protests saw contractors block the Ministry of Finance in Abuja for days.
To resolve the impasse, the committee convened its first meeting on September 4, 2025, during which 25 percent of outstanding fees was agreed to be paid. Sunday’s session, held on September 21, 2025, was a follow-up appraisal of compliance by both government and contractors.
According to the Deputy Speaker, representatives of the Office of the Accountant-General confirmed during the meeting that of the N2.4 trillion approved, only N160 billion remained unpaid. They also revealed that the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, had approved an additional N760 billion for warrants and cash backing covering May to September, raising the total to about N3.1 trillion.
Kalu praised the government’s commitment despite fiscal pressures, “It’s commendable by this government to have approved such an amount of money, and that in one year of our economic stress, for the government to approve N2.4 trillion for payment of contractors is a great step towards the right direction, and I thank the President through the Minister of Finance.”
“Beyond that, approval has been granted for the warrant and cash backing of the remaining months. The administration, through the Minister of Finance, has approved warrant and cash backing from May, June, July, August, even up to September, the month that we are in. They said they have about extra N760 billion approved to take care of what is outstanding, in addition to the N2.4 trillion, which is bringing it to about N3.1 trillion.”
The lawmaker, however, warned contractors against short-changing the Nigerian people, citing instances where money was claimed for hospitals, schools and roads that did not exist.
“We told them it would be wickedness to claim that a hospital has been built and lives have been lost because there’s no hospital to attend to people, that schools have been built when students are learning under trees, that roads, farm roads, have been built when post-harvest destruction is still on the increase because there’s no way to bring those things down,” he said.
“The principle of ‘let him that work, let him be paid’ should apply. But at the same time, we don’t want ‘monkey dey work, baboon dey chop’—people who have done nothing are paid, and people who are doing something are not paid.”
Kalu disclosed that the committee has fixed October 5, 2025, for another appraisal meeting to track compliance and scrutinize the payment records.
“It’s like post-agreement scrutiny, both on the side of government and on the side of the contractors. That was what we discussed today,” he concluded.
The meeting was attended by the Director of Funds and the Chief of Staff to the Accountant-General, while the Minister of Finance and the Accountant-General joined virtually due to engagements at the Presidential Villa.