The Senior Special Assistant on Community engagement (North-Centrall to the President, Dr Abiodun Essiet, has said the slow pace of work on the Abuja-Lokoja and the Lokoja-Benin Road projects was unacceptable.
She stated this on Monday during the inspection of ongoing federal road projects in Kogi State.
Recall that the Minister of Works, Engr. David Umahi, had last year terminated contracts for four road projects in Kogi State over poor performance by contractors handling the projects.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
The Minister had, during an inspection of road projects in the state, asked contractors to deploy in more sections to be able to meet up with time but months later, the contractors did not adhere to the Minister's directive.
Some of the contractors visited did not meet up with the project timelines and did not show signs of deploying more equipment to do so.
Their project managers, who took turns to speak, all admitted to having failed to meet the project timelines.
The Presidential Aide expressed dissatisfaction with the pace of work and called on the Ministry of Works to ensure the job was delivered.
She said, "No, no, not at all, as the progress of work done is not encouraging at all. Just a few months left and they have only been able to achieve not much.
"I'm not impressed by the level of progress being made, so that's why the ecstacy is not there. That's why we are pleading with the controller and the contractors to make sure that they intensify more efforts because this is a very busy road and a whole lot of people are expecting more from Mr President on this road, so we just want to urge the contractor to do more in terms of bringing more equipment, in terms of collaborating with other people to help make sure that this project is completed in due time, please."
The Project Manager of the Dualisation of Lokoja-Benin Road being handled by CGC Nigeria Ltd, Abubakar Yaba, however, lamented poor funding of the project.
He attributed the slow pace of work to the paucity of funds.
He said the project has attained 38 per cent completion with time lapse of 90 per cent.
He, however, lamented that while over N59bn was certified, only about N54bn was paid with over N4bn outstanding.
He said, "Then the commencement date is December 2012. Then phase two commencement date is October 2014. Then, the augmentation number commencement date is 4th of July 2024.
"Then advance payment granted N16.7 billion. Then advance payment received N2.8 billion. Then amount certified to date N59.6 billion.
Amount paid to date is N54.8 billion. Then amount outstanding up to date is N4.7 billion."
He continued "Then our challenge on the project is budget provision in 2025. There's no provision on this project in 2025. Up to date, we still have this challenge and a challenge of the outstanding."
But, in a swift response, Dr. Essiet disagreed with the contractor. She said poor funding shouldn't be a constraint since the contractor showed proof of financial capacity before being awarded the contract.
She said: "I think one of the things we look at when we give project to contractors is about your capacity and Mr. President assured that Renew Hope Intervention Fund will be channelled to pay these funds. So it's about you as a contractor to go ahead and finish your job as agreed.
"Because if you mentioned that you didn't have financial capacity to do this, they wouldn't have awarded that contract to you. It's because you assured us that you are going to finish this job. Mr. President assured that Renew Hope Fund will be also channelled to pay for all these.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
"So that shouldn't be a delay. So, wherever you can mop up funds, I can assure you that Mr. President is going to pay.
"Wherever you can mop up funds, mop up funds because this project is very critical.
"People are waiting. People are waiting for the completion of this project to ease movement. So, please and please, we don't want to come back the next time and be saying this. We have assured you of Mr. President's commitment and also the Minister of Works is also committed. But show us what you are made of. Show us your capacity that you can finish this road," she said.
The Federal Controller of Works in Kogi State, Engr. Patiko Musa, said the complaints raised by the contractors were being attended to by the Ministry of Works headquarters in Abuja.
He assured that their requests for extensions and payments would be met in due course.
