Minister summons road contractor over poor performance

The Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Shehuri has summoned the contractor handling rehabilitation work on Bauchi-Gombe road, Enerco Nigeria Ltd., over poor performance.

Shehuri gave the order on Thursday in Bauchi during an inspection of ongoing Federal Government projects in the North-East.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the slow pace of work on the project, adding that Nigerians were becoming impatient with unserious contractors.

“We have visited other construction sites in the state before we arrived here, while I am satisfied with the level of work by other contractors, I am disappointed with the pace of work here.

“I have summoned the contractor to come over to Abuja to sort out issues because if they are not ready for business they should let us know.

“Nigerians are becoming very impatient, they need this project because apart from the road, we are also interested in the employment content and other benefits that will come with it,” he said.

Mr Charles Ezike, the Federal Controller of Works, Bauchi State, said that the 81.5 kilometres rehabilitation road project was awarded in 2017 with completion period of 24 months.

He said that the contractor was adequately mobilised and had achieved 1.88 per cent completion after 49.72 per cent time lapse.

“This to us is a dismal performance because when the contractor primed the first stone base section, they were unable to cover it with asphalt.

“This resulted to deterioration on the surface that we are witnessing and the reason is that the contractor’s asphalt plant is not in working condition.

“They have been battling to fix it and I have severally advised that if their own cannot function well that they should buy asphalt from other company,” he said.

Mr Jamil Nasser, the Project Manager, Enerco Nigeria Ltd blamed the delay in the project on the bad state of the company’s asphalt plant.

He said efforts were being made by the management to change the plant and pledged that the new plant would be ready for work within days.