By Christiana Ekpa
House of Representatives yesterday resolved to investigate Julius Berger, Federal Ministry of Work and Housing over contract monopoly on Lagos-lbadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge.
The investigation will determine if the amount disbursed so far on the projects has a commensurate value with the job done till date.
The House equally urged its Committee on Works to investigate and determine the contractors capacity to deliver the contracts awarded as Scheduled.
Also expected of the committee is to determine if there is a potential conflict of interest in awarding the contracts to a single contractor, as well as to determine if the contract sums have been inflated.
The resolutions of the House followed a Motion sponsored by Ifeanyi Momah (APGA, Anambra) during Thursday plenary, precided over by the Speaker of the House, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila.
Moving the motion, the Anambra Lawmaker disclosed that there are evidence of slow pace of work on these 3 critical projects across the country.
According to him, the Lagos Ibadan Expressway, Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano expressway and the 2nd Niger Bridge have suffered set back which resulted in traffic congestion; fatal accidents being recorded daily and a downturn in the economy of the States bordering these projects.
He said “these critical projects were designated to be funded under the Presidential Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) domiciled at Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) so as to ensure proper and prompt funding.
“Despite the prompt release of funds by Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) the projects are lagging behind schedule. As of December 2019, Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) has released the following amounts N19, 520,949,317.16 to Section 1 of Lagos Ibadan Expressway N80,242,079,039.46 to the 2nd Niger Bridge N50,856,044,301.27 to Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano Road
Totalling the sum of N150,619,072,657.89
He noted that there is also a potential conflict of interest in Julius Berger’s involvement in the 2nd Niger Bridge.
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