The Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi says the contractor handling the rewarded Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road project early revoked from Julius Berger is competent to deliver, contrary to reports.
He said the company for the job is ‘Infiouest International Nigeria Limited’, not InfoQuest Nigeria Limited, as reported by a National Daily, not LEADERSHIP.
Umahi accused some contractors of delaying contracts and asking for a price review when materials prices increase.
The minister briefed journalists in Abuja on Tuesday about the project following reports that it had been awarded to an “inactive” company. They said portions of the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Road delivered by Julius Berger are already failing.
He said Julius Berger had published misleading information on Monday following the termination of the contract due to irreconcilable differences.
He explained that the project was terminated after 14 months and over 20 meetings between Julius Berger and the Ministry of Works without a resolution on the timeline and fair price of the projects.
He accused Julius Berger PLC of inciting Nigerians against the federal government with its rhetoric on road projects.
According to the Minister, Julius Berger lacks the necessary equipment to execute jobs awarded to it, saying “Berger is living in past glory.”
He explained, “They (Julius Berger) just say that they have finished the project 65%—that’s 750 kilometres. I don’t want to tangle with them on that. But if you have completed the project 65% and what was satisfied and paid was 391 billion with no debt to you, why are you asking for an additional 1.1 trillion to finish the remaining 35%? That is what it means.
“You finish 65% and then ask for 1.1 trillion as a review, not additional work, no extra work to this thing. And let me say that we are engineers, the Society of Engineers fellows. We did not read our engineering from the backyard.
We went to better schools than some of these people who claim to be engineers. The Abuja-Kano and I want anybody to look at it, but 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 added that the Federal government refused to pay an additional 1.1 trillion, which was the beginning of the problem.
“We then negotiated for 14 months. 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 were 240 kilometres.
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”.
However, in his desire to complete the project, he said President Bola Tinubu refused the tax credit scheme and gave the Ministry of Works the go-ahead to conduct proper due process and get it awarded.
HE continued, “The President directed that we extend the project at Kano to cover the Aminu-Kano International Airport because the road is so bad. You see a terrible road to the international airport from the point the road stops.
We also extended by another 2.5 kilometres by two from point zero, linking Kogi road. So, on the whole, you have 119 kilometres. It was, you know, bidding for, and the no objection that we got is for 252.9 billion.
It also includes additional work. The extra work is to have solar lights on the entire stretch of the roads so that travel time could be utilised during the night and safety could be provided. And so we’re very shocked because if you checked 119 and 250 today, we would have awarded that job at less than 2 billion per kilometre.
But Berger was asking and insisting on 3.12 billion per kilometre for an existing road. Again, we are using reinforced concrete to do this job because we want Nigerians to appreciate the president’s health beat to develop road infrastructure. It’s not just to develop it; it’s to make it durable.
So those demarketing us should begin to look at what the contractor will do as soon as they approve it. I pray to God that they approve it. They will start to see a lot of ingenuity work on that project.
Because the taste of the food is to be eaten, it’s not to be talking and be talking,” he said.
Speaking on the Bodo Bonny road project currently handled by Julius Berger, he said the contractor reneged on agreements demanding an additional 80 billion to complete the job this year in September.
“And let me state that there is no place where Berger works for the Minister of Works, where they have agreed on a dialogue or give and take. And I’ll give you the example of the Bodo Bonny road. The project was reviewed.
I can’t know the exact price the past administration reviewed, but we made a contract of 199 billion with an agreement that the project would not be reviewed again. In September, Berger reneged on that agreement and insisted the project should be reviewed. They emphasised that the project would require another 80 billion. We went through all the negotiations and appeals; we even had to go to the Villa before the Honorable Attorney General, the National Security Adviser, and 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 80 billion to complete the job by September of this year.
It’s left to be seen whether Berger will complete the job by September because we are beginning to see many tactics that will still delay the project. What is terrible about the contractors is that they are delaying the projects and increasing prices, so the masses are suffering from delays in projects, road accidents, and, again, the federal government is paying for inflation. 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.” But that was not the reason we came in.
