The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has disclosed that the federal government would no longer award contracts worth less than ₦20 billion to foreign contractors.
The Minister who spoke during an inspection visit to the ongoing dualization project of the East-West Road (Section IIIA) from Eleme Junction, Port Harcourt, to Onne Junction in Rivers State, said the federal government would henceforth award such projects to local contractors only.
Umahi stated that the decision to award all contracts worth less than ₦20 billion to local contractors is to promote the Nigeria First policy.
He added that the Federal Ministry of Works is implementing a funding prioritization strategy for tax credit projects taken over from Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) across the country.
The Minister noted that the Ministry would ensure projects executed by both local and foreign contractors are properly monitored for quality delivery, Naijaonpoint reports.
He said, “We are inspecting projects of federal government in Rivers State, and this particular one is the dualization of Eleme Junction to Onne Port Junction by RCC. Recall that one carriageway was completed and commissioned, even though there are a few things we ordered afresh like the retaining wall and hanging drainage.
“For the second carriageway with some bridges and flyovers, work has started on it. Let me say that this is part of the NNPC Tax Credit that has been stopped in terms of funding by NNPC.
“But graciously, we have compiled all the NNPC inherited Tax Credit projects, and we presented as Ministry of Works to Mr. President. And Mr. President has graciously directed that none of such works should stop now. However, as Ministry, we are going to do prioritization of the projects and look at the most critical of these projects within the national economic corridor like this one. And we are going to put it forward for immediate funding because the President directed that none of such projects should stop now.
“I have also noticed in some of the projects in Rivers State, and same with the Six Geo-Political zones, that contractors go ahead to put stone base and put binder course of asphalt, sometimes over 20 kilometres and leave the binder unprotected without putting wearing course.
“The binder is like a reinforcement to the road architecture. The wearing is the sealant that doesn’t allow water to go beyond the surface. And so when you now put stone base, which has dust as designed, and you put binder, which is like a reinforcement, and you see that the composition of the binder asphalt has bigger stones, and it has holes, so the water penetrates.
“The moment it gets to the stone base, which has some dust, the road fails. It may technically look safe, but with time, it will definitely fail. And we’ve seen it in a number of roads we inspected. And what I’ve directed the Controller to do, and it’s going to be nationwide, is that when you are putting binder and you have left it for more than two months, we are going to redo the certificate and remove all the binder and remove the stone base.”
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