Abandoned road project: Reps committee grills Works Ministry’s perm sec

The House of Representatives Committee on Public Accounts on Tuesday grilled the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works, Dr Yakubu Adam, over the abandoned Gidanwaya-Guaran Dutse-Waman Rafi-Saminaka-Kano road project, of which payment of N1.46 billion had been made in full.

The worried Chairman of the Committee, Rep Bamidele Salam, lamented that the money for the project was a loan from the Federal Government.

The Permanent Secretary, who was appearing before the Committee after failing to turn up for two previous invitations over the matter, was however directed to reappearance before the Committee next Monday

In addition, the Permanent Secretary directed to submit all relevant documents related to the project by Friday to enable the Committee to study them for a proper probe of the project

Speaking, the Chairman of the Committee, Rep Salam said, “You were invited concerning an exercise that is about to commence, which is the inspection of critical national assets, especially roads that were constructed in the last five years.

“Information we received from the debt management office indicated that the number of roads were even undertaken with loans taken by the federal government. But in particular, a particular road with the title Gidanwaya-Guaran Dutse-Waman Rafi-Saminaka-Kano road in Kaduna State awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works on the 5th of October 2022 and the sum of N1.461 billion paid to Messrs Jam Jam Dynamic Platform Limited.

“This road was supposed to be completed within 12 months. There’s an allegation that the road awarded in 2022 has not been started as we speak and there has been full payment of the sum by the Federal Ministry of Works to the contractor concerned.

“As a committee of equity, we believe strongly that we must give all parties a fair hearing. You should provide information on the status of the road. We asked for certain documents to be provided and we expect that you would provide us with better insight so the committee can take a decision on the best way to ascertain the truthfulness of the claim that the road has been done while full payment has been effected to the contractor.”

The Permanent Secretary, in his response, said that the amount was not for the entire stretch, which is 133 km but a portion of the road.

He said the road was done in phases due to paucity of funds and expressed surprise that the road had not been done but apologised for not honouring the previous invitations, claiming that the invites did not get to him

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