The bursar of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Kayode Folorunsho has said contrary to insinuations in some quarters that the academy is reluctant to pay debts owed contractors, 90 per cent of the academy’s budget for the year 2016 has been set aside for debt servicing.
Speaking recently at a press briefing by the academy’s Acting Rector, Mkpadiok N. Mkpadiok, the academy, bursar explained that the availability of funds is crucial to the payment of debts owed contractors.
According to Folorunsho, “first and foremost, we will like everybody to know that the so called debt owed contractors were inherited by this current administration. Secondly, there are two conditions attached to payment of debts.
“The first condition is performance based. If a contractor has not performed, we cannot pay such contractor. We have set up a contract review committee which discovered that some of these contractors will not even come to site.
“The second condition for payment is funds availability. Sometimes, funds will be available, but the contractor will not hjave been judged to have performed very well on the job. In such cases, we cannot pay such contractor.
“Sometimes, funds will not be available and the contractor would have been adjudged to have performed very well on the job. In such case again, we cannot still pay because there are no funds.
“However, we cannot be shouting to the whole world when we pay some contractors. I remember vividly, the immediate past Rector of the academy, the late Anthony Isiodu paid substantial amount of money to contractors. The records are there.
“We have decided that this time around, no new contracts until we settle all outstanding contracts. In our budget this year, we have already put 90 percent of the funds available to servicing of debts.”