Minister for Works, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator David Umahi, has directed regional directors to work with his team of consultants to review all the projects with augmentations.
According to the minister, he wants an answer to defend all the questions from Mr. President, the National Assembly, the masses and the media over the augmentation.
Umahi made this known when he inspected some of the Federal roads already awarded by the Federal government in Ebonyi State.
He then urged contractors handling some projects in the State to adopt the concrete technology to complete the remaining parts. He threatened to sanction contractors who failed to complete projects awarded to them within the stipulated time.
He, however, vowed to review and reduce all roads having augmentations if he didn’t get satisfactory explanations from the contractors.
“I have directed all the regional directors to work with my team of consultants to review all the projects that are having augmentations”.
“It is not a probe, but I want to be able to answer your questions about why a project that was awarded for, say, N2bn is now N10bn.
I should be able to answer that. I need to know why projects are being reviewed upwards.
“Even though BPP would have approved it, I will bring down the cost if I feel the augmentation is unnecessary.
“I am not against the augmentation, but I want to be able to answer to Mr President, the national assembly, the masses and the media and defend whatever augmentation that is right”
“It is not a probe, I seek for knowledge. For example, the National Assembly recently met me, they are investigating why the Abuja to Kaduna Kano, zaria road which was initially N155bn became N655bn. I partly know why but then I want to fully know why so that I can face them and defend it”, he said.
The Works Minister insisted that roads done qualitatively with concrete will outlive the ones done on asphalt as it has a life span of over fifty years before requiring more maintenance.
He said: “The contractors are doing very well. We will refer one of the contractors not on-site to the legal department. We want to know why he is not on site. We will check what he has done against what he has collected.
“This job was awarded till 2012, and it is not palatable. No project should last more than four years. There is a need to review the project.
“Use of concrete is not cast on stone. First is the stability of the road. Like in the north you can do asphalt but that is not to say that concrete cannot be used. If asphalt will last for ten years, concrete will last for 50 years”
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