FIFA Goal Project Constructor Known Tomorrow
From Juliana Taiwo in Abuja
The Nigeria Football Association (NFA) will tomorrow name the contractor that would handled the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) Goal Project in Nigeria.
At the weekend, three constructors, Vjat Nig. Ltd had tender contract sum N315 million ($2.250 m) for the Lot A part of the contract which is the building and gave 26 weeks as period of completion, Dori Constrcution Engineering Nig Ltd submitted
N285,893,268.70k (24 weeks) and Avon Nig Ltd. N215,163,663.20k (26 weeks) but said its quotation is valid for 12 weeks after which it would be reviewed.
Addressing newsmen later, Mr. Shehu Dikko, of Inter-Projects Associates, the consultants for both FIFA and NFA said the NFA had asked all three contractors to go back and review their prices as they were way above the budget of FIFA but refused to make it public.
They must be ready with the reviewed cost tomorrow from where one of them would be chosen and forwarded to FIFA ahead of its Wednesday meeting.
"What we did was to design the project and send it to them (contractors) to cost and tell us how much it will cost because of FIFA's deadline which is Wednesday but the various sums submitted by the contractors are quite ridiculous they probably think is one of those contracts they can inflate prices.
"Jean Manga, who headed a FIFA two-man delegation alongside Jean-Michel Benezet to Nigeria during the last visit would be present at the negotiating table at Tuesday's meeting," he said.
He said FIFA's stance is that the project must commence on September 1 2004 and be finished by February 28 (26 weeks).
Nigeria's application to benefit from the Goal Project has been pending before the international soccer governing body for several months.
The FIFA's visit was in response to the additional information presented by Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Secretary General Taiwo Ogunjobi on his visit to FIFA congress in Paris during the football federation centennial activities.
NFA has already secured land for the construction of a proposed technical centre which will enable it undertake the enormous challenge of developing its huge reservoir of talents.
But the take off of the project has always been put on hold because FIFA wants to ensure that the grants are well expended and cost not inflated - the body has often insisted on tenders for the contract of the project before it will release funds for its implementation.
If everything goes well, Nigeria stands to receive $400,000 from the Goal Bureau to finance the project aside the grant of $1m (about N140 million) from FIFA spread over four years for same
It provides needed cash for selected national associations in developing countries to develop their football infrastructure.
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