The joint Committee on Public Service of the National Assembly has decried the deplorable condition of the Federal Secretariat in Abuja.
The committee urged the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation to urgently articulate action plans toward revamping the national infrastructure in order to avert possible collapse.
The National Assembly made the call on Wednesday when the Head of Service of the Federation, Dr. Folashade Yemisi-Esan, appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives Joint Committee on Civil Service Matters to defend the budget estimates proposed by the office in the 2024 Appropriation Bill.
The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Service, Senator Cyril Fasuyi, expressed concerns about the state of the Federal Secretariat.
Senator Fasuyi said the issues of delapidated structures at the Federal Secretariat and the fire fighting equipment were of serious concern that should have been presented with a major prayer for funds allocation.
Also, the Chairman of the House Committee on Civil Service Matters, Hon. (Engr.) Sani Bala, observed a sharp drop in the proposed capital budget of the office for 2024 when compared to that of of 2023.
Hon. Bala said the reduction did not suggest any form of urgency in the situation with the Federal Secretariat, wondering why there was no significant proposal for renovation in the budget.
Yemi-Esan had earlier informed the joint committee of the need to have an additional N10billion allocated to the renovation, and another N4billion to procure fire fighting equipment for the facilities.
The Head of Service said the renovation project was not accommodated in the approved wallet, despite that “the Federal Secretariat is becoming defective structurally and we have had engineers who have come to tell us that if something is not done urgently, the situation would become dire.”
She said a recent fire incident almost proved disastrous if not for the intervention of the FCT Fire Service. She, therefore, requested for N4billion for that purpose, adding that necessary fire service infrastructure would be put in place.
Yemi-Esan also reacted to an earlier question concerning the role of the FCDA in maintaining the Federal Secretariat buildings, saying her office had made several efforts to get the FCDA to renovate the structures nothing was done.
She said it was her considered opinion that the Federal Secretariat is “not their priority.”
The committee, therefore, urged the HoS to pursue the issues vigorously, as the Federal Secretariat is a national infrastructure that must be put in top shape at all times, warning of a looming danger if nothing is done to overhaul the entire structure.
The committee also commended the leadership of the National Assembly Service Commission for its efforts in putting up a quality head office building located on the eastern flank of the National Assembly complex in Abuja.
The Chairman of the NASC, Engr. Ahmad Kadi Amshi, also appeared before the committee for the defence of the commission’s 2023 budget performance and 2024 budget proposal.
Amshi told the lawmakers that the NASC gets its funding from the National Assembly budget. He also said the commission had achieved 90 per cent of its budget releases and performance.
The lawmakers, however, raised concerns about the delay in the payment of salaries of Legislative Aides, asking why those documented since July were yet to be paid.
The NASC chairman told the committee that the issue was purely handled by the National Assembly management and not the Commission. He, however, assured that they would intervene to ensure that legislative aides were paid all their outstanding salaries before the end of December.
