Gbajabiamila inspects N11.6bn NASS Service Commission complex

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila on Wednesday inspected the N11.6 billion National Assembly Service Commission (NASC) complex, located within the National Assembly complex, Abuja.

Hon. Gbajabiamila, who was accompanied by Chairman, House Committee on House Services, Hon. Wale Raji and Clerk of House of Representatives, Dr Yahaya Danzaria during the inspection of the ongoing construction of the NASC complex, described it as a legacy project.

He also expressed hope that the 2023 Budget proposal will be presented latest by the first week of October 2022.

While expressing satisfaction over the level of work done so far on the temporary Chamber located at Conference Rooms 0.28 and 2.36 within the New Building, expressed optimism that the temporary chamber will be ready by Tuesday next week.

He said: “Where we are right now, it will be ready on Tuesday. They have done so far so good, this work started in August. It started a few weeks behind time but for a good reason.

“So far, between August and now, giant strides have been made. You see that the old Chambers have been ripped apart. The innovations are going to be state-of-the-art. We will at the end of the day be proud to have Chambers that match the best standard all over the world. I’m quite impressed with the work so far.

“I will encourage them to double the pace because as it is, unfortunately, or fortunately, this is not for the benefit of the 9th Assembly it is for the benefit of the 10th Assembly. The old Chambers are not going to be ready until sometime in August 2023 so we are talking about close to a year.

“But so far so good, we are happy and this temporary site where we will be sitting for the next 9, 10 months is honestly a far cry from where we used to be but they have done well in adapting, this used to be hearing room to a legislative chamber.

“Adaptation – you made a lot of innovations. We are ready to work. The 10th Assembly is most likely (taking off here) unless work can be accelerated but we don’t want to accelerate work and compromise the quality of work. So is better late but done well, everything worth doing is worth doing well.

“So, right now they bill to open that place in August. If we are lucky and they are able to move faster and work 24/7 round the clock, maybe a month or two earlier in which case the 10th Assembly will come into the new Chamber.”

He assured us that the configuration of the two halls being configured as temporary Chamber will accommodate about 100 and about 200.

“I can see everybody upstairs, everybody presiding can see everybody upstairs, can see everybody downstairs,” Hon. Gbajabiamila noted.

On his part, the Federal Commissioner, National Assembly Service Commission, who doubles as chairman of the monitoring and implementation Committee of this project, Basil Olusegun explained that the permanent site of the National Assembly Service Commission was initiated to ensure seamless service delivery.

“The reasons we are moving here are various: security, proximity to the service targeted functions. Here we have enough space, we are presently at an occupied rented apartment and here we cater for all our needs, handful parking space, we have offices all the functionaries, management team and down staff and clinic for staff welfare and most of all, we will be very close instead of staff coming from Utako when they have issues, we are very close to them here.”

While speaking on the cost of the project, he disclosed that “the estimated cost of the project is N11.6 billion and the estimated duration is 104 weeks. And if divided that is about two years. Right now, this place can take care of the 400 staff of the National Assembly Service Commission.”

Also speaking, the Senior Architect, Tirade Associate, project consultant, National Assembly Service Commission Complex, Architect Michael Baka assured that the ongoing construction will be accelerated.

“We are accelerating the work to see that we complete this project by April 2023 as against August 2023. On the civic works, which are on the third and fourth floors, we are 70% completed. By the time you factor in services, we say we are 30% completed. It is an office complex which also has pockets of spaces for occasions during work.”

He further affirmed that the cost of the project which currently stands at N11.6 billion, was N3.5 billion when it was conceived in 2011.

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