Surveyor-General squandered N1bn on mapping of 2 states -Reps

By Christiana Ekpa

The House of Representatives committee on works yesterday said it has uncovered a total amount of N1 billion used by the office of the Surveyor General of the Federation, under the Ministry of Power, Work and Housing for the mapping of two states.
The revelation came out on Tuesday at the budget defence of the Ministry when the Surveyor’s office presented its 2019 appropriation bill to the committee
The members of the committee lead by Toby Okechwu (Enugu PDP) faulted the breakdown of N324 million used for Anambra LGA’s, N484 million Anambra water and river bodies as well as mapping of Ebony South Senatorial zone for N484m.
The members equally queried the increment in the agency’s personnel from 2017 to 2018, even as they asked the office to provide the details of employment within the period, as well as N1.2billion approved for ground digging in 2018 which was increased to N2.4billion in 2019 budget.
Responding, the Surveyor General of the Federation, Ebisintel Awudu said the office is responsible for mapping of every state for the period of 5 years at least.
But the member disagreed stressing that, “there is no where in the world where mapping design are this high” On the increment of personnel, Awudu said, the office got approval to employ engineers from level 8 to 10, adding that, the Federal Civil Service commission has been employing staffs for the office to about 130 Surveyors.
According to him, “I wrote for 12 Surveyors which should come from the states that have international boundaries . The employment of level 12 to 14 Surveyors is ongoing the office,” he disclosed.
Presenting the 2019 budget earlier, Surveyor Awudu said the personnel cost for 2019 budget is N844,192,327.00 billion, with overhead cost of N225, 000,000, while the capital cost N5, 603, 003,988.00 totaling N6,672,196,315.00 billion.
On the 2018 budget, Awudu said the appropriation for the office was N8.15bn, adding that N3.3 billion was released to the office as the office he said utilized N3.3 billion.