Govt to probe contractor over Ajaokuta Steel
From Ade Ogidan, Oghogho Obayuwana (Abuja) and Ralph Agbana (Lokoja)
INVESTIGATIONS may be conducted soon by the Federal Government into the activities of Solgas Energy Nigerian Limited, the firm charged with the completion of work on the troubled Ajaokuta Steel plant.
Solgas was in charge of the plant for over 13 months. The contract was re-awarded to another company recently following a protest from workers.
The workers, who opposed the way Solgas was running the steel plant, however called off their strike yesterday.
Under the concessional agreement between the Federal Government and Solgas, the company was to ensure the completion of the steel plant.
The company was also expected to inject $3.6 billion into the steel plant.
But workers at the complex felt that Solgas did not have the technical and financial resources to fulfil its own part of the agreement.
They strike was to drive home their call on the Federal Government to terminate the contract.
Last Wednesday, the government terminated its contract with Solgas and re-awarded it to a new firm.
In an address to the workers when he visited the complex yesterday, the Minister of Power and Steel, Liyel Imoke, expressed concern over the development.
He said Solgas had failed the nation and already, government had put in place the necessary machinery to look into all the allegations levelled against the company.
He said that the management of Solgas would be severely penalised, should they be indicted.
"We shall investigate everything Solgas did within this period of 13 months and if we find out that they have mismanaged our resources, we shall hold them totally accountable for it. I can assure you they would pay dearly for their actions," he said.
The Minister noted that the report of the monitoring committee submitted to his ministry indicated that Solgas had not invested any money in the project as earlier agreed upon in the concessionary agreement.
He gave the name of the new management as Global Infrastructure, a subsidiary of Ispat of India, adding that Ispat had been engaged in steel plants for over three decades in many countries including India, Ireland and Germany.
He assured the workers of the readiness of the Federal Government to revert to the status quo in the payment of salaries and allowance to the workers.
Briefing reporters in Abuja yesterday, the new chairman of Ajaokuta Steel, Mr. Pramod Miltal, said the new concessionaire had effectively taken over from Solgas.
The new agreement with Global Infrastructure Holdings Limited with a life span of 10 years, was described by Imoke as tidier than the earlier one.
