By Dele Ogbodo
The Federal Government through the Ministry of Works on Wednesday, stated that in keeping with its pledged and avowed commitment to Nigerians through the Renewed Hope Administration of President Bola Tinubu, the sufferings being experienced by road users at this curve of our nation’s economic challenges will soon be a thing of the past.
While interrogating and appraising Julius Berger Plc, on the reason for the delay in delivering ongoing nationwide projects, Engr. David Umahi, the Minister overseeing the nation’s road infrastructure rollout, acknowledged that government’s resolve to deliver road infrastructure timely to Nigerians is in alignment with directive of the Federal Executive Council (FEC).
According to him, this is with respect to all inherited and new projects being handled by Julius Berger and other multinational companies.
Still expressing disappointments over delay in infrastructure delivery, probably arising from price differentials or poor funding, he said the Ministry has resolved to adhere to a decisive discussion with Julius Berger on all the inherited and new projects, adding that this is with a view to appraising their performance and take decisions on funding for timely completion of all projects awarded to them.
He said: “This is part of the measures of the Renewed Hope administration to mitigate the sufferings of road users at this moment of economic challenges.”
The new resolution, the Minister said was the outcome of the crucial meeting held with the management of Julius Berger at the Ministry’s Headquarters, Mabushi-Abuja.
Umahi, reiterated the firmness of government on transparency and integrity on price control, commitment on the part of contractors to project execution and delivery, value for money, and uniform pricing location by location.
He however decried the unacceptable conditions on some of the inherited and new projects of all ongoing federal roads awarded to Julius Berger, which were being delayed due to issues of price differentials, spike or lack of effective funding.
According to him, the projects affected include: the 82km by 2 dualization of section of the Abuja-Kaduna- Zaria- Kano Highway currently handled by Julius Berger, phase 2 of Lagos-Ibadan expressway, whose pavement elements had been changed from asphalt to concrete, section 2A bypass at the 2nd Niger Bridge whose pavement element was changed to concrete, the Bodo-bonny road funded by NLNG tax credit, the under deck structural works at 3rd Mainland bridge, Iddo bridge and Carter Bridge.
The Minister urged the contractor to be open to a mutually agreed modality for milestone execution and funding of the projects at reviewed rates as may be agreed upon and approved by Federal Executive Council.
He said:” Our job is to develop this mechanism based on FEC directives, and engage with the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and finally we take our recommendations back to President Bola Tinubu, and to FEC for consideration.”
On the section of Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road, which the company has agreed to expedite action, he commended the quality of work being done but directed the contractor to stick to one carriageway at a time to accelerate its completion.
He further directed contractor was further directed to, within three weeks, fill the two carriageways with stone base and level it to alleviate the sufferings of road users.
He further said, “We agreed that this project, within their own corridor, will last for 14 months. Project execution should be deployed in four sections, and we’ll be paying Berger ₦20 billion every month to get the job completed.”
On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, phase 2, he said the Ministry had no choice but to determine the contract and ask Bureau of Public Procurement for No Objection for selective tendering.
He recalled: “We changed the elements of the pavement from asphalt to concrete, and the total cost we came up with based on prevailing cost is ₦153 billion.
But they are offering ₦258 billion.
“Since we’ve been on this since September 2023, we have no choice but to determine this contract. And then we ask BPP for No Objection for selective tendering, whereby we will be sending our own advice of ₦153 billion to BPP, and we send their own of ₦258 billion to BPP, and then we invite other contractors to also bid.”
“This, we will conclude within the next one month so that we can get that job concluded.”
Also on the Second Niger Bridge by-pass that is being handled by Julius Berger Plc, he said: “One of the by-passes, which is 17.27 kilometers by two on asphalt was awarded to Julius Berger. We changed the pavement elements to concrete and we came up with ₦133 billion.”
While still expressing his reservation over the cost reviews, he said Berger almost gave us more than twice our cost, which is ₦279 billion, adding that the Ministry disagreed with this cost at the time of negotiation since September 2023, he added.
According to him, the Ministry took steps to get the project back to BPP and invite more contractors to bid because this is public fund, he said.
On the Bodo-Bonny project being funded by NLNG tax credit, the Minister expressed concerns that Julius Berger though had mobilized back to site after additional cost of N80 billon was approved for the work, but reports showed that their pace of work was slow.
He was further worried that they came up with a longer timeline of 16 months within which to deliver the project against the December 2024 deadline proposed by the Ministry.
He said, “Finally, we agreed on an additional cost of ₦80 billion, which will bring the project to about ₦280 billion fixed and non-varying with the unit rates agreed, and we agreed that this project will not increase in cost beyond ₦280 billion.”
While urging the contractor to shift ground to a shorter timeline for the sake of the people, he added: “Concerning the under deck structural works at 3rd Mainland Bridge, Iddo bridge, Carter Bridge in Lagos State, there is no doubt that the contractor did a fantastic work, and we have no problems on pricing.
The Minister acknowledged that the Ministry has paid 30% due to the intervention of Mr. President. They’re working, and we’ve directed that each time they put a certificate and we still have funds, we will pay within 7 days because this job they’re doing is very critical.
On lack of adequate maintenance of the country’s infrastructure, he said for 53 years, those bridges were constructed there hadn’t been adequate maintenance, and so the deterioration is so horrible and frightening. Right now, we’ve closed the 3rd Mainland Bridge against big trucks, Umahi, said.
On the Odukpani road in Cross River State, he said: “We have got approval from FEC to increase their project by ₦36 billion, thereby raising the project cost from ₦54 billion to ₦90 billion.
“This was just approved for a few days ago. We want to know their response on that. Yes, we have agreed to change the pavement to concrete, and our position is that they have to engage on one carriageway when we agree on this.
“It is when we agree on all these ones where that we do not have complete funding that we can enter into the second phase of what FEC directed, and that is to discuss the mechanism.”
In his remarks, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Yakubu Adam Kofarmata, stated that some of the ongoing road projects handled by contractors required emergency works to alleviate the sufferings of road users and assured that all the supervising engineers would be on their toes to ensure that the Ministry’s policy of operation free our roads was carried out by all the contractors handling federal government roads nationwide.