Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi has expressed confidence in the contractor handling the reawarded Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road project earlier revoked from Julius Berger, declaring that the firm is competent to deliver, contrary to reports.
Umahi also stated that the company handling the project is ‘Infiouest International Nigeria Limited’, and not InfoQuest Nigeria Limited as reported by a national daily (not LEADERSHIP).
The minister accused some contractors of deliberately delaying contracts to ask for review of contract sum when prices of materials may have increased.
Umahi stated this on Tuesday while briefing Journalists in Abuja on the project, following reports of its award to an “inactive” company, adding that the portions of the road delivered by Julius Berger is already failing.
He stressed that Julius Berger had on Monday published a misleading information following the termination of the contract due to irreconcilable differences.
The minister explained that the project was terminated after 14 months and over 20 meetings held between Julius Berger and Ministry of Works without resolution on the timeline and fair price on the projects.
He accused the company of inciting Nigerians against the federal government with its rhetorics on road projects.
Julius Berger Plc, the minister added, lacks the necessary equipment to execute jobs awarded to it, adding, “Berger is living in past glory”
“They (Julius Berger) just say that they have finished the project 65%, that’s 750 kilometers. I don’t want to tangle with them on that. But if you have finished the project 65% and what was satisfied and paid was N391 billion with no debt to you, why are you asking for additional N1.1 trillion to finish the remaining 35%? That is what it means.
“You finish 65% and then you are asking for N1.1 trillion as a review, not additional work, no additional work to this thing. And let me say that we are engineers, Fellows of the Society of Engineers. We did not read our own engineering from the backyard.
“We went to better schools than some of these people that are claiming that they are engineers. The Abuja-Kano, and I want anybody to look at it, is failing. “This 65% is failing. Go and look at it and you see that there are patches already on the project. And so, nobody should come to teach us engineering. We understand engineering very well”.
He attributed that dispute between the company and the Federal Government to the refusal to pay additional N1.1 trillion to Julius Berger Plc.
“And then we negotiated for 14 months. And again, they just said they were going to finish the remaining so-called 35% in three years.
“And I said, No. They said they won’t finish in 14 months. We are talking about the entire remaining sections, which was 240 kilometers.
“And so, we now said, okay, since you can’t finish in 14 months, we now disaggregate the project and we took out Section 1 and Section 3 and we gave it out on tax credits as two projects,” Umahi explained.
He however, said President Bola Tinubu in his desire to complete the project, refused the tax credit scheme and gave the Ministry of Works the nod with due process and get the project awarded.
He continued, “The President directed that we should extend the project at Kano to cover the Amino-Kano International Airport because the road is so bad. From the point the road stops, you see a very bad road to the international airport.
“So we also extended by another 2.5 kilometer by two from point zero linking Kogi Road. And so on the whole, you have 119 kilometers. It was bidded for and the ‘No Objection’ that we got is for N252.9 billion.
“It also includes additional work. So the additional work is the entire stretch of the roads to have solar lights so that travel time could be utilised during the night and safety provided.
“We’re very shocked because if you check 119 and you check 250 this day, we would have awarded that job at less than N2 billion per kilometer.
“But what Berger was asking and insisting was N3.12 billion per kilometer for an existing road. And again, we are using reinforced concrete to do this job because we want Nigerians to appreciate the heart beat of the president to develop a road infrastructure. It’s not just to develop it, to make it to be durable,” he said.
The minister stressed that those that are demarketing the government should begin to look at what the contractor will do as soon as the project is approved “because the taste of the food is to be eaten. It’s not to be talking and be talking.”
Speaking on the Bodo Bonny Road project currently handled by Julius Berger, he said the contractor reneged on agreements, demanding additional N80 billion to complete the job this year in September.
[/b]“And let me state that there is no place that Berger is working for Minister of Works that they have agreed on a dialogue, or give and take” he said[b].
Umahi gave the example of Bodo Bonny Road.
“The project was reviewed. I can’t know the exact price that the past administration reviewed, but we made a contract of N199 billion with an agreement that the project will not be reviewed again, but in September, Berger now reneged on that agreement and insisted the project should be reviewed. And they insisted that the project must add another N80 billion.
“We went through all the negotiation, appeals, even we had to go to Villa before the Honorable Attorney General, before the National Security Adviser, before the Chief of Staff to the President. We had meetings with them three times over this particular project.
“So, we had to come in and they gave Berger the N80 billion to complete the job by September this year.
“It’s left to be seen whether Berger will complete the job by September because we are beginning to see a lot of tactics that is still going to delay the project,” he said.
He added that, “What is very terrible amongst the contractors is that they are delaying the projects and there is increasing price, so the masses are suffering for delay of projects, the accidents on the roads, and again, the federal government is paying for inflaction[.
And that’s why we had a meeting and we said, for you to claim VOP, it has to be very stringent conditions for you to claim VOP”.
He lamented, that the worrisome part of it was not the disagreement, but that “there is a very serious incitement of the public against the federal government”.
Peoplesmind
