The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, has said the federal government would demonstrate courage in terminating contracts of non-performing contractors whether indigenous or expatriate.
He however assured that the federal government will give greater opportunities to indigenous contractors in the country on the construction and rehabilitation of federal roads.
He spoke weekend during his inspection of rehabilitation projects of federal roads at Sapele-Ologbo-Benin road and the East-West roads in Delta state.
While commenting the contractor, Trutech Global Investment Services Limited, handling the four failed sections of the East-West road between Uhweru and Patani, he expressed displeasure with the progress of work at Sapele-Ologbo-Benin road by the contractor, Geld Construction Ltd.
However, he threatened to terminate the contract of the Sapele-Benin road as he said that would relieve the people of the difficulty they face daily in plying roads.
The Minister ordered the ministry’s supervising engineers to issue a warning letter to the contractor on Monday, and after 14 days should it fail to do the needful, he would personally terminate the contract.
“Most contractors in Nigeria are playing politics, which l will not tolerate. After one week if the contractor do not commence the construction of continuous reinforced concrete pavement, the contract will be terminated.
Senator Umahi lamented the suffering of road users and faulted the contractor for attributing the slow pace of work on-site to the high cost of cement.
“We paid multi-billion naira for this job. We will never pay Variation On Price (VOP) for the amount of money that we have paid. That is the problem with Levant Construction Company.
“You cannot do this kind of job in your country, it can only happen in Africa. You cannot collect our money and be misbehaving. It is a big shame. Look at how people are suffering everywhere, and we should be happy clapping for you.
“I have had more than ten meetings with them on this job. If anything goes wrong, they will be calling the President.”
At the Amukpe roundabout end of the ongoing dualisation of the Sapele-Eku-Agbor road, he directed the contracting firm, CGC Nigeria Limited to discontinue for now the dualisation until it finishes one carriageway of the project as well as rescope the job.
He told the contractor, “the existing carriageway should be worked upon. Do not continue with the dualisation until we have finished one carriageway. There is no need to continue the two carriageways when we don’t have money to even finish one.
“I am directing that you (CGC Nigeria Limited) to rescope the job. We are not stopping the dualisation but we are phasing it. We finish the existing lane, make it motorable for people and then we go into the other one.” the minister ordered.
Engineer Adesola Adetoro of Trutech Global Investment Services Ltd however assured the minister of full compliance with the project specifications while working to ensure early completion.
The dualization project of the Sapele-Eku-Agbor road with section one starting in Sapele was awarded in 2014 but work commenced in 2015. The project is 110.6 kilometres with a percentage completion presently at 12.9%.
