260 Contractors Face Contract Revocation as FG Hands Down 3-month Ultimatum
CHIGOZIE AMADI
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, yesterday gave contractors handling 260 emergency road rehabilitation projects awarded by the Bola Tinubu administration a deadline of three months to complete and deliver the projects or face termination of their contracts.
The ultimatum was issued during a meeting of the management of the Federal Ministry of Works alongside the Federal Controllers of Works, with the contractors handling the various projects held at the ministry’s headquarters in Mabushi, Abuja.
The emergency road projects were appropriated for in the 2023 supplementary budget with the intention to bring immediate intervention on the completely failed parts of critical federal roads nationwide with a view to restoring the serviceability level of the affected roads.
Umahi listed about 37 contractors who had achieved little or no milestones in the project delivery since the contracts were awarded and warned that such contractors must mobilise effectively to the site latest Wednesday July 10, 2024 or face cancellation of their contracts.
“If after the deadline for mobilisation to the site, any contractor fails to comply, the job shall be terminated by effluxion of time as the contract is for a time limit of three months.
“Any contractor whose job has stayed for more than three months without completion after the issuance of award letter must seek and obtain approval for extension of time from the Federal Ministry of Works,” a statement by the minister’s spokesman, Uchenna Orji, quoted him as saying.
Most of the defaulting contractors, the statement said, are handling emergency road projects in Yobe, Jigawa, Zamfara, Benue, Kogi, Abia, Anambra, Imo, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and River States.
The minister warned them that the projects awarded to them must be delivered in three months time as no excuse of security challenges or lack of mobilisation funds would justify the sufferings they are subjecting road users to.
He further threatened to blacklist the defaulting contracting firms who he said are constituting a cog in the wheel of progress in the efforts of the current administration in ‘revolutionising’ road infrastructure for Nigeria’s economic prosperity.
Umahi said: “The people are suffering, the president is having sleepless nights in his efforts to fix our road infrastructure to help our economy, and people will be given jobs and they are telling us stories.
“There have been jobs awarded by this ministry in the past and money paid, and the contractors would hold the money, and they would say it’s a security problem. Didn’t you know about the security situation before you got the job?, ” he queried.
He further gave marching orders to the Federal Controllers of Works to ensure proper supervision of projects in their sites and be abreast with the contracts awarded, amount, date of award, timeline, review date, extension of time, augmentation granted and whether the contractor is on site.
Umahi reiterated that mobilisation funding under the standard conditions of contract was not a condition precedent for them to move to the site, but at the discretion of the Federal Ministry of Works.
According to him, this can be made available only to contractors who can undertake through affidavit of commitment to complete the job within three months of mobilisation.
He added: “Our new policy is that if you want mobilisation and we are happy to give you, you will abide by the conditions. One is that there will be no review of any component of the mobilisation given.
“Two, we will give you 30 per cent and you will do 30 per cent of work before we can give you another money. So please, mobilisation is not compulsory. Again, emergency projects are not mobilised. The rule is that in emergency projects, you will go and do it 100 per cent, and then you submit your papers.
“We will now pay you 80 per cent and send your documents to the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP). When they approve, we pay you the balance of 20 per cent.”
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary, Yakubu Kofarmata, stated that the time had gone when contractors were taking the country for granted and could afford to delay in job delivery for years after collecting mobilisation and would keep feeding on the issue of variation of prices.
He charged contractors to brace up to the new spirit of “Nigeria first,” introduced in the Federal Ministry of Works under the current administration.
He said: “Honestly, we have a stake. It is about the Nigerian nation. We don’t have any other country other than Nigeria. Believe me, we are pushing the minister right now to stop considering this VoP and augmentation, because, there is no reason, after being given an award letter, you come and say you are waiting for payment for six months.
“Let us consider the nation first. Once we put Nigeria first, you see that things will move.”
