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NPA contractors petition Obasanjo
over unpaid fees
OVER
5,000 contractors of the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) have petitioned President
Olusegun Obasanjo, Transport Minister, Dr. Abiye Sekibo and NPA’s managing
director Chief Adebayo Sarumi, over the non-payment of their contractual fees.
The contractors, under the auspices of NPA
Contractors’ Association, said the non-payment of their supplied goods, services
to the NPA within the last four to 10 years, has been causing untold hardships
to them.
The petition signed by Alhaji Semiu
Owolabi and Mr. Innocent Okoye on behalf of the NPA "general and specialised"
contractors, said the various amount being owed the contractors ranged from
N20,000 to N6 million.
"As small scale contractors/businessmen
and women, our meagre working capitals have been trapped within the NPA these
past years with attendant Terrible, Very Terrible consequences for us as
individuals and as families.
"Many of us who have borrowed money from
banks and pledged houses and other property as securities, have had the said
property sold by banks.
"Even after this, the banks are still
pursuing us because as a result of interest accumulated over the years, the
proceeds of such sales have not been enough to offset the totality of such
indebtedness. Many families have been broken," the contractors lamented.
They claimed that many of them withdrew
their children from schools due to non-payment of their fees, because "all our
monies (capital and profit) have been trapped in NPA."
"Many have died. Many who took ill, were
taken to hospitals in critical conditions and were unable to pay for their
medical care even registration fees and deposits in many cases, have died
tragically.
Many have been ejected by their landlords
for their inability to pay their rents, among other woes. This is what we have
been experiencing for the past many years," the NPA contractors added.
They said all appeals to both the past and
present NPA administrations to pay up have yielded no fruit.
Condemning the constitution of another
panel by Chief Sarumi to investigate another round of verifications of the
contractors’ claims, they described the exercise as needless and superfluous.
They wondered why a fresh panel headed by
Chief J.K. Randle be set up "after a panel of external investigators have just
concluded an 18 month work doing exactly the same thing."
"That exercise itself was preceded by a
rigorous internal audit/investigation and authentication of our claims," they
added.
They called for the immediate dissolution
of the panel "as we fear that we are about to witness another two years wait
while Randle peruse over documents that have been investigated and investigated
thrice over in order to be able to justify the hefty fees he is likely to
demand."
The NPA contractors appealed to Mr.
President to direct the implementation of the reports of the three previous
panels.
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