The Federal Ministry of Works has terminated major road contracts awarded to Mothercat, Dantata & Sawoe Construction Ltd, and Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) Ltd.
The affected contracts were for the dualisation of sections II, III, and IV of the Obajana-Benin highway in Kogi and Edo States.
A statement issued by Uchenna Orji, the special adviser media to the Minister of Works, David Umahi, explained the rationale for the termination on Tuesday.
The statement cited significant delays and failure by the contractors to meet their contractual obligations.
The statement says, “The Federal Ministry of Works has terminated contract numbers 6136, 6137 and 6138 with Mothercat Ltd, Dantata & Sawoe Construction Ltd and RCC Ltd respectively.
“The projects affected by this termination are the dualization of Obajana – Benin road, section II (Okene – Auchi) in Kogi/Edo State; the dualization of Obajana – Benin road, section III (Auchi – Ehor) in Edo State and the dualization of Obajana – Benin road section IV (Ehor – Benin) in Edo State. 2.
“The termination of the said contracts became neccessary in view of the inordinate delay of the affected companies in job performance and their failure, neglect and or refusal to fulfill their contractual obligations as required by the Standard Conditions of Contract and this has affected the timely completion of the projects and thus resulted in the expiration of the contracts by effluxion of time.
“The projects which were awarded on 3rd December 2012 were advertently abandoned by the contractors and no genuine commitment or good faith was shown towards executing the projects after accepting the considerations offered by the Federal Government and thereby exposing the road users to untold hardship due to the deplorable condition of the projects.”
The projects, which commenced on December 3, 2012, were marred by what the Minister described as abandonment by the contractors, despite having accepted government funding.
According to him, this abandonment adversely affected road users, leaving sections of the highway in deplorable conditions.
As a consequence of the terminations, the Ministry has directed its engineers to take possession of the project sites and works from the affected companies.
The statement says, “The Honourable Minister has therefore directed the engineers in charge to take necessary steps to enter upon both the site and the works and take the same over from the affected companies.
“He further directs the engineers concerned to, upon doing the needful, arrange with the affected companies for a joint measurement of work so far done by the said companies preparatory to taking over the sites from the said companies, and this directive is without prejudice to the exercise of other rights of Federal Government under the contract.”
The government engineers were also tasked with assessing the work done so far, in preparation for transitioning responsibilities.
The minister, through the statement, issued a stern warning to other contractors, stressing that the Ministry would not tolerate non-performance or actions that hindered national development goals.
The statement adds that the government will not condone acts of unseriousnes and sabotage by contractors whose plan is to become a clog in the wheel of the administration which is determined to change the ugly narrative of Nigeria’s road infrastructure.
“The Renewed Hope administration is committed to transforming Nigeria’s road infrastructure, and any contractor found wanting will face similar repercussions,” he affirmed.
The Minister’s office reiterated that going forward, all contracts funded by the government must adhere strictly to performance timelines and contractual obligations, lest they face termination.