By Ayo Yusuf
As an incentive to road contractors who often complain of the federal government’s laxity in fulfilling contract terms, the Minister of Works, David Umahi, Thursday, disclosed that about N431bn is now available to pay for road projects.
The Minister said this while meeting with contractors handling road dualisation projects and zonal directors of the ministry at his office in Abuja, yesterday.
According to Umahi, “We have N431bn of money that is ready for contractors to clear but there is no certificate for it. If you are doing a job under Phase 1, make an effort to make claims, if your job involves augmentation go back to your regional director for understanding before I sign the certificate. Any certificate I sign now, I have to take account of it even when I have left office.”
The minister however announced that he had come up with a performance bond which specified that all new projects would be guaranteed for 10 years.
He urged all contractors who have built roads that would not last up to 10 years to write to the ministry to either stop work or rebuild the roads to last for a decade.
The minister warned contractors that he would not listen to stories of failures on the roads due to issues like overloading.
Mr. Umahi who urged them to cooperate with him in building roads with concrete technology as they are done in India and Singapore also announced the ministry’s intention to focus on the dualised roads across the country.
He said, “Why we are here now is to announce our intention to face most of the dualized roads in the country.
“I want to remind you that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is funding 50 per cent of the contract sum and that funding goes up to 2025.
He nevertheless urged the contractors to stick to one lane if their job had not gone up to 50 per cent completion.
Mr. Umahi told the contractors and stakeholders to key into the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr President’.
He said this administration had 18000 kilometres of roads, and inherited a contract of about N14.1tn, out of which N4tn was being paid in all those projects, some of which had lasted between 10 to 20 years.
The minister alleged that some contractors jerked up the contract sums by as much as 100 percent, a reason they were not getting paid.
