As DG BPP says he’s unsatisfied with pace of work on Kaduna-Kano Road

By Tordue Salem – Abuja

The House of Representatives has expressed worries over delay in the completion of Abuja-Kaduna, Lagos-Ibadan projects, awarded by the Federal Government since 2013.

The House also rebuked the Bureau for Public Procurement for allegedly awarding the contract to Julius Berger, without due process.

The House Committee on Works, headed by Rep. Kabir Abubakar (Kano-APC), made the position of the Committee known at an investigative hearing yesterday.

The lawmakers at the hearing with the Director of the Bureau of Public Procurement, Mamman Ahmadu, also queried the issuance of no-objection certificate, to the company without taking the interest of Nigerians at heart.

The critical three projects include the second Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kaduna, Lagos_Ibadan road construction.

ALSO READ: What Buhari doesn’t want to hear about roads — Fashola

The lawmakers also picked holes in the decision by the BPP to clear for the award of a Road contract of more than 400 kilometres, to a single contractor Julius Berger

Responding, the Director-General of BPP Mamman Ahmadu, said he was not satisfied with the Abuja-Kaduna road project so far following an inspection.

“I’m not happy, with the work so far,” he said, in response to the Committee.

“The Lagos-Ibadan project was conceived as a public-private partnership, but no performance from the concessioner. It was awarded during Jonathan’s time and because of poor performance, it was re-awarded. The

Second Niger bridge, likewise started as PPP project but failed to perform and it was converted to a contract financed by the government and started by Julius Berger.

“Abuja-Kaduna-Kano was initiated to open competitive bidding and was later given out too. It was much later because budgetary provisions was not coming regularly and the government took it up to finance,” he said.

Rep Mark Gbillah (PDP-Benue) said the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road, began as open competitive bidding, as he sought to know and asked the procurement process adopted to give the job to Julius Berger.

The lawmaker sought for justification on why Julius Berger was awarded the contract as it has not been part of the initial process

Hon. Bello Kaoje questioned the rationale behind the BPP awarding roads more than 400 kilometres to a single contractor Julius Berger

Responding Mohammed said communities, where the critical projects are sighted, had wanted the multinational company to handle the projects.

There was an evaluation of the three projects and based on quality, Julius Berger was given the contract

“Quality is very important, so the specification and the quality requirement were considered.

“In our review where we thought Julius Berger priced a particular material expensive, we reduced it.

“In fact, at a time this project came, Julius Berger said if they were allowed to do the road that they will ensure road maintenance for 30 years and minimum maintenance for a few years thereafter.”

“For instance, he said: “the National Assembly should also take note, you have three blocks here and the ones built by Julius Berger, see how they are still clean, and the ones built by others are going bad and need maintenance.”

He also said the JB was at the bidding stage, contrary to the position of the Committee.

The second Niger Bridge, was awarded for N206,151,693billion, the Kaduna-Abuja Road, was awarded for N155billion, while the 1st section of the Lagos-Ibadan road was awarded for N134billion.

The lawmakers also vowed to prevent any interested party from relooting the Abacha Loot, earmarked for the projects by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“The efforts of the Federal Government of Nigeria to secure the Abacha looted money, is well-documented, the government has said the money will be used on these critical projects, we will not allow the money to be relooted through inefficiency and corruption.”

According to him, “We cannot sit by and ignore the plight of Nigerians suffering daily on these roads, we will not allow the efforts of the President to deliver these projects to Nigerians, be in vain.”

The House’ enquiry on the three critical projects, followed a resolution of the House 27th February 2020 mandating its Committee on Works, to investigate the work done on the 2nd Niger Bridge and the two other road projects, awarded under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF).

Vanguard