Govt threatens to revoke contract for Lokoja port
From Nkechi Onyedika, Abuja
THE Federal Government has threatened to revoke the N2.3 billion contract for the construction of the Lokoja port awarded to Messrs Phobe Engineering Company Nigeria Ltd.
The government has given the contractor a one month ultimatum to perform or get the project terminated.
Contract for the construction of Lokoja port was awarded before the exit of the immediate past administration in 2007. The Federal Government had in January this year summoned the contractor to explain why the company collected over 35 per cent of the contract sum and had performed below 15 per cent.
The immediate past Minister of State for Transportation, John Okechukwu Emeka, during an inspection tour of the site of the project few weeks before his removal from the cabinet, had equally expressed displeasure with the scope of work carried out so far on the project
Speaking while inspecting the project site yesterday in Lokoja, Kogi State capital, the Minister of Transport, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, who expressed disappointment with the pace of work at the project site, wondered why no appreciable progress had been recorded almost two years after the contract was awarded.
He said: "This project is badly executed or not being executed. The project was conceived in 2001 and the contract was awarded to Phobe Engineering since 2007. Our patience is running out and we are giving the contractor four weeks to address the issues."
The minister noted that the contractor had alleged that the scope of the project was not in conformity with the initial plan as additional culverts had been added and engineering drawing had not been provided. But he added that government could not accept any excuse.
He said: "On the average, we have discovered that they are not completely true. Some are excuses and we need to advise the contractor to be more committed. I have also directed the permanent secretary to study the terms of agreement for the contract and relevant clauses, so that if there are no changes after four weeks, we can terminate the contract in accordance with the rule of law.
"It is not that we are afraid of the contractor, we are following the due process of doing things. It is not the military era when you say this project is terminated on the pages of the newspapers. We have to go back to the agreement and make sure that due process is followed and give the person ample opportunity to defend himself before we terminate the agreement."
On whether the contactor has the capacity to handle the project, the minister said: "They have handled similar projects elsewhere and the projects were successfully completed, so it is not true that they are incompetent."
However, the Project Manager, Mr. Henry Odionyenfe, said that the project was being delayed by some factors beyond their control, alleging that the consultants had never been on site since the inception of the project.
He further alleged that there were two major culverts designed for the projects but the engineers of the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) retained one and split the second to 13 different culverts.
"They gave us something that looks like a sketch that cannot be quantified. We said that the drawing is not good enough, that they should give us a drawing that have every engineering detail, but till date, we have not received any. They also claimed that we have not given them a project schedule but from our records, we have up to three project schedules received by them and stamped by them."
Odinyenfe claimed that NIWA had not been able to sort out community issues and had not relocated the communities living around the project site, stressing that this had been a hindrance to the smooth running of the project.
His words: "They promised that they would clear the site and relocate the community people living in the area but till today, the people are still there and if you want to cut any tree, they will say that it is their economic tree and also claim that some places are their places of worship. How can we develop such a project?
"We have pleaded that they bring back the consultants that initially designed the project so that the work can go on. Even at the board members' meeting, the chairman of the board blamed NIWA for not giving us necessary information and promised that the consultants will be on site but we are surprised the way they turned the whole story around."
But a representative of the consulting firm, Abraham Nwachukwu, denied the allegations raised by the contractor.
