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The Federal
government has said it is now ready to begin an assessment of the
budget performance for the 2010 fiscal year and has ordered all
Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) to without delay supply it
with their performances for the year, 2010.

The Minister of
Information and Communication, Labaran Maku disclosed this yesterday
while briefing State House correspondents shortly after the weekly
Federal Executive Council meeting, which was presided over by President
Goodluck Jonathan and attended by Vice President Namadi Sambo and most
ministers.

He also said the
order became necessary to enable the federal government to concentrate
on the assessment of the performance of the 2010 budget, as well as the
formulation of new policies for 2011.

“The Federal
Executive Council (FEC) at its meeting presided over by Mr Jonathan
today took far reaching decisions. Today marks the end of contract
awards under the 2010 budget, so as from the next FEC meeting we will
no longer award contracts. All the MDAs have been mandated to submit
their 2010 performance to enable us concentrate of policy formulations”
he stated.

Performance appraisal

Mr Maku also said
the performance assessment is to enable government re-appraise its
priorities and concentrate on those areas that lacked adequate
attention under the 2010 budget.

“Every MDAs have
been asked to prepare a progress report on all contracts so far
awarded, so that Nigerians can see the state of the contracts and the
progress made in all the various sectors into which we have committed a
lot of resources” he said.

He added that “from
subsequent meetings, you are now going to hear the reports of all the
contracts. It is not just enough to award contracts, we also want to
know what has been achieved and the level of the performance of the
2010 budget” he said.

Project completion orders

The minister
further said as part of the President’s commitments to improving
agriculture in the northern part of the country, he has ordered the
completion of all ongoing dam projects in the area, including the
abandoned Ganye dam in Adamawa State and the Kontagora dam in Niger
State.

He said the FEC
during its meeting gave approval for the award of contracts for the
completion of the Hadeija Valley Irrigation project in Jigawa State
which was first awarded in 2001 but was abandoned by the previous
government at the cost of N5.908 billion.

According to Mr
Maku, the project was abandoned at 80 percent completion stage, when
the contractor requested for an upward review of the contract sum to
N10, 333, 167, 334.42, representing an augmentation of
N4,424,923,799.38.

He also noted that on completion, the project will provide irrigation in 2 stages covering a total of 12,500 hectares.

Council also
approved the award of contract for the establishment of E-Passport
Public Key Directory (PKD) which will make it easier to verify personal
data information contained in the current E-Passport both locally and
internationally, in the sum of N229.125Million.

According to the
Minister of Interior Emmanuel Iheanacho who expanded on the contract
“Other benefits of the PKD include provision of fast and secured means
of validating e-passport; easy detection of compromised or forged
documents, making it easy for citizens to travel internationally, and
allowing states to improve security at international borders”.

Earlier, the
Minister of Finance, Olusegun Aganga, also briefed journalists on the
successful launch of the 500 Million US Dollars Debut Eurobond
Offering, which he said will serve as a benchmark for private
borrowers; including banks, oil and gas companies as well as
manufacturers.

The bond, he said, will also act as a catalyst in stimulating and
accelerating the country’s growth by bridging the gap between the
Nigerian corporate and global investor community.