Umahi Disputes Julius Berger’s Claims on Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Expressway

•Alleges company too rigid, failed to shift ground after 20 meetings 

•Says news report of award of contract to inactive firm false

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Minister of Works, David Umahi, yesterday reacted to public comments by Julius Berger on the disagreement between the company and the federal government relating to the costing of the multi-billion naira Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road.

Umahi, who spoke during a press briefing in Abuja, alleged that Julius Berger has continued to live on its past glory; fails to exhibit any flexibility during costing of contract negotiations and always insists on prices that are not fair.

The minister stressed that after over 40 months of negotiation and 20 meetings, it was obvious that the construction company was deploying delay tactics and would always demand variation of prices.

After several months of back and forth, the minister had recently revoked the contract with Julius Berger on the critical road infrastructure and was awarded to Infiouest International Limited to continue its construction.

“…Forty months and over 20 different meetings, and Berger could not come to terms with us. And let me state that there is no place that Berger is working for the Minister of Works that they have agreed on a dialogue, or give and take,” he stated.

Julius Berger had stated in some advertorials on Tuesday that it only demanded a contract review because of the volatile nature of the naira, which has been impacted by inflation and the foreign exchange rate. It also said at no time was the company invited to re-bid for the project after it was revoked.

But while accusing the company of inciting the public against the federal government,  Umahi narrated how several attempts to make the company see reason did not yield any results, noting that the federal government was only interested in getting value for money and a fair deal for contractors.

He argued that the company’s incessant demand for contract reviews, not just on the Abuja-Kano road, but on projects like the Bonny-Bodo road was largely unjustified.

“So, back to Abuja-Kano road, they just said that they had finished the project 65 per cent. That’s 350 kilometres. I don’t want to tango with them on that. But, if you have finished the project 65 per cent, and what was satisfied and paid was N391 billion, with no debt to you, why are you asking for an additional N1.1 trillion to finish the remaining 35 per cent? That is what it means.

“You finish 65 per cent, and then you are asking for N1.1 trillion as a review and there’s no additional work. And let me say that we are engineers, fellows of the (Nigerian) Society of Engineers. We did not read our own engineering from the backyard. We went to better schools than some of these people that are claiming that they are engineers.

“The Abuja-Kano road…this 65 per cent is failing. Go and look at it, and you’ll see that there are patches already on the projects. And so, nobody should come to teach us engineering. We understand engineering very well. And so, we refused to pay an additional N1.1 trillion, and that’s where the problem started,” the minister narrated.

Also reacting to a newspaper report (not THISDAY) that an inactive company, ‘InfoQuest’ got a letter of “No objection” of N252.89 billion from the Bureau of Public Procurement ( BPP) for the rehabilitation of a section of the road, the minister made it clear that the ministry had no business relationship with the so-called ‘InfoQuest Nigeria Ltd’.

Umahi clarified that the company that has a contractual relationship  with the ministry on the said project is Infiouest International Limited and that the company is active and continues to comply with all legal requirements and regulations set by the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA). “We didn’t give our job to InfoQuest,” Umahi pointed out.

In his remarks, the Minister of State for Works, Bello Goronyo, said that it was important that the allegations contained in the newspaper report as well as Julius Berger’s comments were hurriedly addressed like the minister had done.

“It doesn’t need a rocket scientist to understand that this is a game which Julius Berger is playing to distract us, or to cause a kind of misunderstanding in the minds of Nigerians,” he alleged.