By Mashe Umaru Gwamna
The Minister of Work, David Umahi, has accused top directors in the ministry of colluding with contractors to jerk up contract fees.
Umahi stated this on Tuesday while addressing contractors from the six geo-political zones in Abuja.
He said most of them are interested shoddy jobs for personal benefits.
He directed the contractors to redesign their projects to concrete project rather than asphalt.
He vowed not to pay any contractor who does not do that.
According to the minister, if the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu Administration does not kill bureaucracy in the ministry he will fail.
“We must kill bureaucracy and destroy the way things are done”.
He said that the controllers will no longer send his certificate to him. They must do that through their directors so that they (contractors) will equally be culpable.”
He said “ If any contractor fails to comply with the directives , he would write to COREN to withdraw his certificate and both local and expertise must have 15 years experience in road construction “.
“ I must ensure that those involved are prosecuted”.
Also, the Minister told the controllers to begin to maintain and supervise roads projects henceforth because they have long shortchanged Nigerians.
Similarly, Umahi, stated that roads that are currently constructed in the country would not last for seven years after ben completed.
He said, “I have stopped the signing of the funds to bereleased to contracts who are seeking price variation of their contracts.
He also bemoaned the pains Nigerians face while traveling on federal roads saying he had to feel their pains when he travelled to Edostate from Abuja.
“There is no project being constructed right now in Nigeria thatis going to last for seven years. The question is are we going to bemaintaining or reconstructing our roads after every 10 years. That is what wehave been doing. I traveled from Abuja to Benin City through Lokoja, all thestretches of the road are on contract, ongoing, this is through the policy of the last administration but howmuch of the roads are motorable. I travelled through the roads myself and I shedtears for the kind of pains our people are going through.“I spent 14 hours on the road having started my journey from10am and got to Benin City at 2pm the next day and I was very happy I experiencedthe pains. President Tinubu said I must travel through all the projects sothat I will brief him on my experience and tell him the truth.”He said the claims that cement price would go to N9,000 ifthe government starts doing concrete roads is false as it is part of a bigcampaign of blackmail against him by the cabals in the construction industry.
He added that he is doing his work with the fear of God ashe is representing the and I receive instructions from the president. “
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