The Federal Government has reiterated its commitment to making sure that all the roads financed under the NNPC Tax Credit Scheme are completed and delivered as scheduled.
The Director Highways, Construction and Rehabilitation, Engr. Folorunso Esan, stated this at the inspection of the ongoing dualization of Suleja- Minna highway, Phase I and II; and the reconstruction of Lambata -Lapai-Bida road in Niger State which are among the critical roads to be financed under the NNPC Tax Credit Scheme.
Esan said that adequate fund has been released to the contractors through the governance process established to ensure prompt delivery of the road projects, adding that no contractor has any reason not to deliver as scheduled.
It would be recalled that during the presentation of the symbolic cheque for the 21 roads by the NNPC in the presence of all stakeholders and the media on December 21, 2021, the Hon. Minister of WorksandHousing, Mr Babatunde Fashola SAN in his remarks said that a governance process was being put in place and that the governance process requires the Ministry to do certification of the certificates for jobs done promptly within five days.
The Minister added on that occasion that as soon as the certificates were certified they would be escalated to the NNPC which would be required to pay within 30 days and that the staff of the Ministry has a certain number of days within which to act to certify the certificates.
Government Harps on Speedy Completion of Road Projects
The Minister also gave assurance then that all the unpaid certificates that were in existence before the scheme was approved and all the certificates that budget provisions were inadequate to pay, would be paid as from signing of the contract with the NNPC adding that what it meant was that there would be money to pay the contractors who would, in turn, pay their suppliers of construction materials in the chain of distribution of wealth across the divide.
The Ministry has therefore clarified that given the governance process put in place for the scheme it was impossible for the Ministry officials or any other person to “hijack” the funds for any other purpose as was recently alleged in some quarters. It also noted that with many of the construction companies just resuming from the yuletide break, work has resumed on the sites with earthworks progressing.
Engr. Esan disclosed that the inspection team was among other reasons, on sites to prevail on the contractors to accelerate their work speed to ensure early completion and delivery of the roads because these are major road networks with heavy traffic flow in the North Central region connecting towns and cities within the region, South-Western states and other regions in Nigeria.
The Director while expressing satisfaction about the volume of work done on the sites, said that the Ministry would carry out the appropriate tests to determine the quality and the durability of the construction work on roads to ensure compliance with the acceptable standard.
Esan pleaded with road users especially truck drivers to be patient with the government and construction workers as they ply the roads while construction work is going on because managing traffic and doing construction work on the roads is bound to slow down the pace of work, assuring them that the challenged spots would be taken care of to address the outcry of tanker and truck drivers.
