ABUJA — A HUNDRED and thirty-one contractors including prominent businessmen, politicians and a presidential special adviser are to be prosecuted by the Federal Government for alleged failure to execute contracts after collecting mobilisation and, in some cases, full payment. They are also to refund a total of N7.086 billion.
These are highlights of government white paper on the first report of the implementation committee on Failed Contracts released yesterday after the weekly meeting of the Federal Executive Council.
A company owned by Chief Rochas Okorocha, special adviser to the president on Inter-party Affairs, is one of the indicted firms. Chief Okorocha has since protested the innocence of his company. The Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr. Akin Olujinmi, has been directed to liaise with the Chief Justice of the Federation, Justice Mohammed Uwais, to designate some courts as “Special Courts” to specifically try the contractors who collected monies from government without executing their contracts.
Works Minister, Chief Adeseye Ogunlewe, who heads the implementation committee, briefed State House correspondents on the decisions of the meeting along with his Information and National Orientation counterpart, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, and his counterpart, Mr. Frank Nweke, Minister of Special Duties and Inter Governmental Affairs.
Chief Ogunlewe said most of the contractors refused to heed the warning to refund the monies hencethe decision of government to apply the big stick. He said a total of 65 contracts were listed againstthe Ministry of Works, 49 in the Ministry of Education, 11 in the Ministry of Defence and six in Ministry of Science and Technology.He said: “You will recall that the council considered the report of the committee on the failed and non-performing contracts between 1976 and 1998 and the council thereafter established a committee to implement that white paper. We have done an extensive review of the white paper, we have invited contractors, we have now reported to the council because we are expected to report every six months.
This is the first report and we have reviewed from the Ministry of Works, 65 contracts, Ministry of Science and Technology six, Ministry of Defence 11, Ministry of Education 49. In almost all cases, the contractors have refused to pay back. The council has now directed the attorney-general to look at the possibility of designating some courts to try the contractors because it’s a lot of money. This administration is committed to retrieve the money.”
A breakdown of the failed contracts shows that in the four ministries where the probe has been conducted, Ministry of Works has the highest amount of refund of about N1, 734,251,608. The ministry also posts an offshore cost refund of $33,351,757 which is about N4, 402,431,924 and another 153,481,179 French Franc, which is about N153, 481,155. The Ministry of Science and Technology has about N1,321,500 worth of failed contracts, while the Defence Ministry posts about N2, 372,973 worth of failed jobs.
The Ministry of Education has 24 failed contracts worth N792,357,373.
Speaking at the forum, Information and National Orientation Minister, Chief Chikelu, said some of the contracts and the contractors came with many problems. “For some of them, there are all kinds of problems: some had mobilisation; but they did not continue; some had mobilisation, did some work; but the agency was unable to continue paying them. It is a total mix. “Whatever is in dispute, the important thing is that the Federal Government is making a clear statementthat it would not be business as usual.
If you have a contract to execute for the Federal Government for which you have been paid, you are expected to deliver. And if you don’t deliver, you go through the judicial process.”Let me make a further clarification, what the FEC has requested the attorney-general to do, is that the Chief Justice of Nigeria or the Chief Judges of various Federal High Courts be requested to designate a court within their own judicial circuit to handle these cases of failed contracts. We are not talking of establishing new courts outside of the existing judicial system, but requesting certain courts to handle this matter, so that they can be expeditiously discharged."
"In our discussion (council), one matter that came up was that taking these people to court would take a very long time because of the pace of the judicial process. So, we felt that one option was to have a court that could deal with matters like this, not just failed contracts but other such financial matters. We are going to get a report from the attorney-general as to the feasibility of that. The important thing is that we must recover for the Nigerian treasury, monies that are illegally in the hands of contractors who have abandoned their projects and that’s all we are trying to do,” he said.
Another decision of the meeting was award of contracts to tackle ecological problems in some parts of the country. Minister of Special Duties and Inter Governmental Affairs, Mr. Frank Nweke, said government’s intervention was in furtherance of its commitment to come to the aid of states and communities who are facing one ecological problem or the other.
He said: “Council today (yesterday) approved the award of two ecological projects. The first one is the construction of Apomu flood and erosion control infrastructure in Apomu Township, Osun State and the contract value is N149,316,763.28. The other project so approved by council today (yesterday) is the construction of Ogbere-Awotunde flood and erosion control structure at Ibadan in Oyo State.
The contract value is N38,563,714.75. As usual, these projects went through due process certification prior to presentation to the council and the contractors that are going to handle them are as follows: For Apomu project, the contractor is Braff Construction Ltd. The second contractor is Platform Nigeria Ltd. It is expected that these projects will be completed within 12 months.”
