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‘Adhere To All Terms Of The Contract’,
Reps C’mttee Warns Highway Road Project Contractor
Saheed Badmus
The Nigerian House of Representatives Committee on Works has warned the new contractor handling the Abuja-Kaduna highway project that there will be consequences for failure to adhere to all terms of the contract.
Recall that the road rehabilitation project was initially awarded to Julius Berger but revoked by the federal government over failure of the contractor to deliver, and subsequently rewarded to Infiouest Construction Company with a 14-month delivery deadline.
Chairman of the committee, Hon. Akin Alabi, while leading other members of the committee on an oversight visit to the road on Monday, described the road as very important and strategic to Nigerians.
According to him: “We all know the importance of this road. We know the controversies generated on this road, and we know how important it is to this administration and to all the road users here, and of course, the parliament because in the last few decades, we’ve spent a lot of money on this road, but we’re yet to see the effect to the extent we’ll like to see it.
“We remember also that this road was being handled by Julius Berger; world renowned Julius Berger, but they failed to follow up their end of the bargain and after lots of meetings, interventions, at the end of the day, Julius Berger’s contract was terminated and it was rewarded to Infiouest.
“That means there’s a big challenge, a lot of responsibility on their shoulder, because when you take a project away from Julius Berger, you expect them (Infiouest) to do better than Julius Berger and that’s a huge responsibility, and we don’t just want to leave them to it, we want to make sure that we continue to be on their neck all through.
“It’s a collective responsibility because one of the things we promised as a committee is that every single kobo that’s been allocated to the Ministry of Works for every project must be accounted for. We want to see results for every single kobo allocated.
“Now this contract has been awarded, and we at the parliament will make sure we follow up on this project to see that quality is ensured, that’s very important and timeline is maintained. We’re going to play our part to ensure that they have no excuses. Funds will be made available to them, but they must show us results for the funds allocated to them.
“We’re just beginning. Every two to three weeks, we’ll be monitoring them. We’ll be coming on site to check the progress, and when we come back, we don’t expect to see the same thing. It is going to be success for all Nigerians, and even for you as a company, because once you do well, Nigeria will not hesitate to give you bigger projects.
“What we’ve seen so far, you’ve demonstrated capacity, but we just hope it’s not the initial gara gara because we know that happens”, he said.
In his response, Central Project Manager of the company, Mr Robert Turner assured the committee of diligent work and timeliness.
“From our side, we promise full commitment to meet the deadline of the 14 months. It’s going to take us some hard long hours, but we’re dedicated as we understand fully, the importance of this road to the people, and also to the President and the Ministry of Works”, he said.
The committee also visited the Abuja-Lokoja road, where rehabilitation of about 22 kilometers of its failed portion, awarded to JRB Construction Company, was ongoing.
The company’s project manager, Engr. Kabiru Adegoke told the committee that the road failed fast due to excessive use of bitumen, assuring that his company is, however, deploying a polymer modified bitumen with better quality and durability.
Representative of the Ministry of Works and the Federal Controller of Works, Engr. Usman Yakubu, informed the committee that both contractors were working in line with all specifications and terms of contract with the ministry. “We’ll ensure value for our money”, he assured.
