Unpaid contractors: Minister laments underfunding, seeks colleague’s support

Minister of Women Affairs, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, has lamented the paucity of funds in her minister, saying she will approach her colleague, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, to seek support in paying some contractors who executed projects for her ministry.

“There is no money in the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs. Most of the things I do, I source for money. We are underfunded. We are owing,” Kennedy-Ohanenye said on Channels Television last night.

“The ones (contractors) we certified ready for payment are only four (or) five; they are the ones that have completion certificates. Remember, you have a completion period of which if you don’t complete this project, it could either be revoked or the money to pay you may probably be exhausted.

“The Perm Sec has called for a committee to use what they call PICA (Presidential Initiative on Continuous Audit) which is where we will write to the finance (ministry) to assist us pay these liabilities because we can’t pay. We don’t have money.

“Or we move some of them to ongoing projects in 2024. Any of them that fall within that, they (contractors) will get paid. I am serious about this. I wouldn’t want people to do work and be suffering but my hands were tied; I couldn’t do much because of lack of funds.”

It was a free-for-all last Tuesday when members of the House of Representatives Committee on Women Affairs and Social Development clashed with Kennedy-Ohanenye, over corruption allegations levelled against the latter’s ministry.

The House Committee chaired by Kafilat Ogbara had begun an investigation into an alleged diversion of ₦1.5bn earmarked for the payment of contractors in the women’s affairs ministry.

The committee had summoned the minister over allegations in her ministry after some contractors petitioned the committee, alleging non-payment for contracts they had executed for the ministry.

‘₦1.5bn Used To Clear Backlog’

Yesterday, the minister said the lawmakers didn’t give her time to explain herself and that she was shouted down.

Kennedy-Ohanenye said most of the contracts in question were awarded before she assumed office last August.

She added that the ₦1.5bn earmarked for projects in her ministry in 2024 met outstanding bills in the ministry.

“The ₦1.5bn, before it came, they were owing double of that, and they started paying people that gradually,” she said.

“Some of them (contracts) were awarded in March, monies for those contracts were released in May (2023) and I came in in August (2023). When I came in, I heard about the contracts; I checked some of them, and a lot of them were not done to date. Only about four files were cleared. Not only that, the ministry had a lot of liabilities due to underfundedness.

“By the October time when they brought in the ₦1.5bn while I was there, they used it to start clearing their backlog.”

“Whenever they (lawmakers) call me, I shall answer them,” she said.