PERMANENT Secretary, Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Williams Alo, yesterday, said the 11 years old East-West Road could not be completed because his ministry was unable to pay contractors an outstanding N14 billion. Mr Alo, who appeared alongside ministry officials before the Kingsley Chinda- led House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee, PAC, said:
“The recession in the country made it almost impossible to pay contractors as only Setraco Construction Company got about N3 billion out of the N17 billion required for the completion of section 2 of the road. He explained that “the releases in 2016 were poor and this made it difficult to carry out work in section 2 of the East West Road.” The committee, at this point, summoned Setraco, the contractor in charge of Section 2, to brief the committee on its challenges. Representative of Setractor, Ziad Mouannes, a Technical Director, told the lawmakers that work on section 2 of the road had reached 78 percent completion, but could not continue as his company was not paid. He explained that “all the bridges in the section have been completed and if we are given our outstanding payments, section 2 will be completed between July and August this year.
The outstanding was N17 billion and only N3 billion was paid to us. But once the balance is paid, the job will be completed.” At this point, Chairman of PAC, Chinda, berated officials of the ministry, saying, “You people have deliberately refused to prioritise your responsibilities and because of that, militancy is on the increase in the region. Some of us travel along that road regularly but so far little work is what we see. There is need for you to show seriousness because if you complete the job, Niger Delta people will be happy with you.” He directed that “officials of the ministry and all contractors should come with a comprehensive report consisting of the following: contract agreement, variation if any, reason for variation, outstanding payments and challenges if any, on February 8. “You are expected to produce 47 copies of the reports and it must reach our secretariat this week,” he added. Other contractors present at the session were Gilto and RCC.
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