Minister of Works , David Umahi has given Nigerians phone numbers to call and report on any defaulting road contractors after December 1, 2023 when the approved N300 bn in the budget would be deployed for road rehabilitation and reconstruction across the country.
Recalling the concerns of Nigerians over the deplorable situations of some sections of the Federal roads throughout the Federation as reported in many media platforms, Umahi said on a statement signed by him that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has promised to tackle the problems head-on and has since reeled out plans of commitment, consistence, and innovations towards actualizing a sustainable road infrastructure development throughout the country.
He said that, “President Tinubu has just approved a 2023 Supplementary budget of Three Hundred Billion Naira (₦300B) for the Ministry of Works comprising of One Hundred Billion Naira (₦100B) for immediate palliative works in 36 States and FCT and Two Hundred Billion Naira (₦200B) for continuation of most of the inherited ongoing projects and very few new but critical road projects.
The,”President has directed that works in those palliative projects must commence before 1st December 2023, while observing all due process. On the sections being frequently complained of by the public in all regions of the North and South of the country, Mr. President has equally isolated them and directed immediate actions on them and indeed work has started on all such roads. The public can crosscheck our claims and report back to us
To ensure full compliance by all contractors, Umahi urged Nigerians to assist the FERMA by reporting any defaulting contractors through dedicated phone numbers.
He said, “the public is hereby requested to assist the Federal Ministry of Works and FERMA by supervising the contractors that will be engaged in these palliative works and indeed all ongoing projects of the Federal Ministry of Works and FERMA. It is the right of every Nigerian to have value for their money deployed to the road infrastructure sector and therefore must show both interest and passion in all the ongoing projects by the Federal Ministry of Works and FERMA, and indeed all projects of the Federal, State and Local governments. All poorly constructed roads should be photographed and reported immediately to the following contacts:
08030986263, 08037086137, or 08106423197; showing the name of the contractor, the location and type of contract and defects observed.
The Federal Ministry of Works will document such reports, verify and take effective action to correct such infractions. The Federal Ministry of Works shall also periodically recognize publicly those who made such reports that are genuine in a public engagement forum to be hosted quarterly by the Federal Ministry of Works and will sanction such erring contractors publicly too.” Below are the criteria the public should use in making their assessment:
8. THE USE OF ASPHALT AND CONCRETE PAVEMENT IN ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
For the avoidance of doubt, the new policy of the Federal Ministry of Works is simply put as follows:
i. contractors for all the ongoing projects are simply requested to have a choice to continue to use asphalt or have their projects redesigned on concrete at no extra cost to government following the underlisted conditions:
ii. Use of asphalt: contractors shall stick to only 5% Variation On Price (VOP) in line with the signed contract agreement throughout the period of the project and the signed contract shall not be subject to review especially on bituminous items.
iii. The thickness of the asphalt pavement as designed must be strictly adhered to by all such contractors and the design shelf life for the asphalt (at least 15 years) shall be guaranteed by issuing an insurance bond through a reputable insurance company in favour of the Federal Government. This is in line with Article 2 of the signed contract and clause 51 of the general conditions of contract (which is part of the documents forming the signed contract with contractors which authorize the client through the Engineer to change the scope of the work, the quantity of the work, the quality of the work as the client may deem fit at any time etc.) for all the ongoing projects.
These directives to the contractors do not in any way violate the Federal Ministry of Works’ signed agreement with the contractors.
iv. For the use of concrete, contractors must abide by the 5% VOP and 50 years design shelf life using concrete grade 40.
c. Those who are complaining and demarketing this policy are simply those who do not wish Nigeria well and they are the same people that use adulterated bitumen in their projects while putting pressure on our Naira through the importation of adulterated bitumen instead of developing our abundant God given bitumen deposits in Ogun State and other parts of Nigeria.
3. The Federal Ministry of Works is very concerned with the supervision of our projects and effective 1st of December 2023, there will be a revolution in the ways and methods the Federal Ministry of Works supervises her projects nationwide. All concerned are HEREBY put on NOTICE as the Ministry will not spare anyone found culpable in his or her assignment.
4. The Director of Works of the 36 States and FCT and FERMA have been directed to audit all projects in their States and FCT especially equipment on and off sites with their pictures, personnel of contractors, status of all projects including financial status (contract sum, date of award, period of construction and time table, amount paid, challenges, % of work completion, augmentation of project if any, VOP claims etc).
This assignment must be completed before 30th November 2023. Note that this directive was given since the past two months.
