An eight-member committee will begin auditing a 1.7-billion-Br "failed project" that was awarded to the Metals & Engineering Corporation (MetEC) this coming week.

The Manufacturing Industry Steering Committee of parliament formed a team to assess the 2015 project awarded to set up 37 manufacturing workshops in four regions of the country as well as the capital. The team is expected to submit its findings within three months.

The committee was formed with two members each from the Ministry of Industry & Trade, Federal Technical & Vocational Education & Training Agency, Metal Industry Development Institute and the Federal Small & Medium Manufacturing Agency.

“The decision to audit the project was taken after it failed to meet its goals,” said Daniel Olani, deputy general director at the Federal Small & Medium Manufacturing Development Agency.

The committee will audit the technical, human and financial status of the workshops. It will assess how many existing machines there are in the workshops and what their specification are, how many of them are functional and how many additional machines are needed.

The committee will also audit the amount of revenue these workshops have generated thus far, the amount of debt outstanding and the number of employees they have and youth groups that are working in the workshops.

“While the project brought together many federal and regional offices, it was spearheaded by MetEC,” said Daniel.

Launched four years ago, the project aimed at creating fully equipped manufacturing workshops for youth groups to work under a lease financing scheme. They were planned for the manufacturing of spare parts for agricultural equipment, vehicles and machinery under medium manufacturing enterprises, which are classified as firms that employ between 30 and 100 people and have a capital of 20 million Br.

This specific project aimed to create job opportunities for an average of 101 people at each workshop.

Currently, there are around 15,000 small and medium manufacturing industries engaged in the production of chemicals, construction materials and textile industry.