The House of Representatives has started work on a bill seeking the establishment of a Public Assets Management Bureau.
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports the bill seeks to repeal the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) Act and transform the privatisation agency into a new organisation charged with the responsibility of overseeing the maintenance of public infrastructure and assets in the country.
A top ranking member of National Assembly and member House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Hon Uzoma Nkem Abonta disclosed this at the weekend in a chat with newsmen in Abuja.
Abonta who represents Ukwa East/Ukwa West. Federal Constituency of Abia State, explained that the bill had become imperative because nearly all public buildings, such as the Federal Secretariat Complex, the National Assembly as well as roads, rail and other infrastructure have over the years depreciated in value due to lack of maintenance.
“If you look around, you’ll notice that we don’t have a proper outfit looking after our public infrastructure and assets across the country. If you construct a public building, it is an asset which may last up to 10 or 20 years without problems. But that can only be possible if we maintain and
manage it properly.
“In other climes where they have a good maintenance culture, such facilities would last for several years. But in our own case, it does not. So the maintenance culture, management culture of assets means a lot.
“Now we borrow everyday from China and the World Bank. As we speak now, there is a request for borrowing on the table of the parliament. These assets been built with these borrowed money, have you thought about their management? By the time all these assets such as railways or airports are finished and there is nobody or group of persons with requisite knowledge, competence, experience, to manage them, they will go into dilapidation.,” he said.
In addition, Abonta said,
institutions such as the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have seized assets in the course of their operations without a clear plan on how those assets would be managed and preserved.
He said it was ridiculous allowing assets worth billions of naira to waste away while the government goes borrowing to build new ones that will be abandoned to rot away.
Abonta argued that it was wrong to expect EFCC, ICPC and AMCON to keep assets that they seized, confiscated or forfeited as they lack the capacity to mange them properly.
“So we are saying there should be a body for the management of our public assets. The committee on Privatization and Commercialisation has deemed it fit to sponsor a bill on the issue.
“We have done the first reading, the debate will soon come up at the second reading. While we await that, we must of course do a public hearing and stakeholders should be able to come and say this will be useful and this will not be useful so that we can look at the comparative and superlative advantages from other climes and see what we can do,” he said.