It will be recalled that on Wednesday, 17th of September, 2019, the Publicity Secretary of Nzuko-Ora Nnewi, Sir Augustine Ikeh accused Hon. Sir Melie Onyejepu for the non-approval of the second tranch of the community chose your project for Nnewi Town.
Speaking to AnaedoOnline, Hon. Sir Melie Onyejepu said that his position in government has nothing to do with the assessment and funding delay if any in the Community Choose your project initiative.
Explaining how the N20M community project initiative started, he said that the initiative was part of developmental measures to reduce the effects of the 2016/2017 global recession on Anambraians, which will help jump-start the local economy and ensure that there is circulation of money around communities to reduce the effects of recession.
On how the project was decided, he mentioned that the initiative has a bottom to top approach management strategy and was structured in a system that allows the communities to decide the project of their interest.
Speaking further, he explained that the N20m Community Development Initiative is under the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Projects headed by Arc. Ezeobi. He said that the agency is populated by people who are involved in project management like architects, surveyors, consultants, and others. The team is robust enough to ensure that the communities and their needs in relation to the implementation of the 20m Naira projects are carefully taken care of.
Speaking also, he said, “This is an initiative where the Igwe and Community PGs initiate a town hall meeting with their subjects on their peculiar needs within a N20m expenditure framework. They then forward the agreed need to be funded to the N20m community project agency for further processing. He said that the initiative further requires the community to nominate experienced vendors from the town who will bid to handle the project. The government is expected to supervise and provide funds for the execution of the project.
“It should be noted that it is a holistic program that has been applauded and copied by other states like Enugu State. Based on the successes recorded by the initiative, we extended the program to all the markets in Anambra State who received N10m each for their choose your project initiative”
“Like I mentioned earlier, as soon as the communities send in their requests, the agency will properly analyze the request in line with the programme guidelines or product paper. They then send in the bid documents and names of bidders and associated tender documents to the state tenders board where it is further analyzed, vendors assessed and verified by consultants in line with the guidelines. Once passed and a vendor is chosen, the tenders board presents the project during the Executive council meetings and once approved, the approval process ends and the funding process kicks in. At this point, the document is sent back to the agency for further processing for its funding. It is important to note that this is a civil service procedure that must be followed but in order to ensure timeliness a pre-approved guideline was put in place”
Speaking further on other processes of approval he mentioned that the agency at the funding level sends the request to the Hon. Commissioner for Finance, who initiates the documentation for payment which is to be signed off by the Executive Governor.
“However, before the Governor’s sign off, the budget office will advise if there are budget provisions for such projects and if in affirmative, the Governor authorizes payment (It is pertinent to note that due to the peculiarity, sensitivity and urgency attached to this laudable project which has given the government a lot of mileage
“At this point, documents are sent to the Accountant-General for payment directly to the vendor. The payment process ends and the monitoring process ensues. It is important to note that due to the fact that the programme is a product paper initiative, the process do not have delays at any point except where vendors do not meet documentation criteria as such the community is contacted by the agency to send in vendors for fresh bids”
“It is the duty of the agency to monitor the projects, provides regular reports to the Executive council on level of implementation by various communities. They equally ensure that valuations are done in the event that a community finishes utilization of its first N20m and assist then initiate the second or third stage. It is pertinent to state clearly that the agency has a critical function along the value line. If there are delays at any stage, they flag it off and escalates it to ensure that any hitch is resolved in a timely manner. Due to the fact that the Agency’s performance and appraisals are hinged on assessment of funding, completion and moving up the ladder to the next stage by communities, one can understand why the agency is always on their toes to ensure, encourage and resolve issues that may hinder any community from accessing, concluding and optimizing funding for the programme”
Speaking on the Nnewi N20m community initiative programme, he said, “Nnewi has received their first N20M funding tranch and I assume that they are billed to access the second stage”
“I have taken out time to give a detailed process flow of the programme to enable the handlers of the project in Nnewi to be properly informed and hence work hand in hand with the New N20M community project initiative Agency who are the project coordinators to ensure our community concludes their second phase asap. I am available to give any needed support and am sure our brothers and sisters who are also top Government officials from Nnewi town including the Chairman of tenders board will surely and selflessly be supportive, he concluded.
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