The Federal Government has terminated its contracts with Mothercat, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) , and Dantata & Sawoe due to non-performance on sections two, three, and four of the Obajana-Benin road dualisation project.
The Minister of Works, David Umahi, made this known in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Uchenna Orji, on Monday in Abuja.
Umahi stated that the contracts were terminated due to delays leading to the expiration of the contracts, which were awarded on Dec. 3, 2012.
“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 dualisation of Obajana – Benin road and section II, (Okene – Auchi) in Kogi/Edo.
”Others are the dualisation of Obajana – Benin road, section III (Auchi – Ehor) and the dualisation of Obajana – Benin road section IV (Ehor – Benin) both in Edo.
”The termination of the said contracts became necessary in view of the inordinate delay of the affected companies in job performance,’’ he said.
Umahi also said that engineers in charged, have therefore been directed to take the necessary steps to do the needful and arrange with the affected companies for a joint measurement of work done so far.
”The Federal Ministry of Works under my watch will not condone acts of unseriousness and sabotage by contractors whose plan is to become a clog in the wheel of progress of the Renewed Hope administration.
”Going forward, the government will not hesitate in terminating all projects that are funded but are non-performing,’’ he said.
Backstory
Earlier, Nairametrics reported that the Federal Government threatened to terminate the contract of Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) for failing to complete even 1km of the 15km East-West Road section from Eleme Junction to Onne Port Junction in Rivers State, despite receiving over N40 billion in mobilization funds.
The Minister of Works issued a seven-day ultimatum to RCC, warning that failure to remobilize would result in the termination of their contract.
Umahi also said that no requests for price variation from the contractor would be entertained, as the project does not warrant any price adjustments.
He expressed his concern for the hardships faced by road users and emphasized the Federal Government’s commitment to securing interim funds for road maintenance until the company resumes work on the site.
What you should know
In recent times, several road construction projects undertaken by the Federal Government across the country have been abandoned by the contractors responsible for them.
The primary reason cited for these abandonments is the contractors’ requests for price variations, arguing that the agreed sums are insufficient to complete the projects due to factors such as inflation and the cost of importing machinery
Examples of recently abandoned road construction projects include the Bodo-Bonny road project being handled by Julius Berger, the Lokoja-Benin and Obajana Junction-Benin road projects in Kogi and Edo States, and the 15 km section of East-West Road from Eleme Junction to Onne Port Junction in Rivers State.
