Lagos to raise tribunal on failed contracts
BAD days await errant contractors in Lagos, as the state government has concluded arrangements for the setting up of tribunal to try those of them who have failed to execute their contracts.
Addressing participants at a two-day workshop on management and administration of advance payments and bonds in construction contracts, the state commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Mr. Rauf Aregbeshola said the need for a tribunal to try contracts becomes necessary because it would enable the government to recover the monies paid to contractors who failed to deliver satisfactory services.
He also said at the occasion organised by the Nigeria Institute of Quantity Surveyors, on Wednesday in Lagos, that advance payments were made to encourage local content in the country, adding that contractors were made to provide advance payment bond as guarantee.
The commissioner said that such an advance payment bond was no longer tenable as the bond agencies could not help in the recovery of down payments.
He said: "It, therefore, becomes necessary for a reassessment of the effect of the down payment as well as the way to prevent the abuse of this privilege in the construction industry."
The workshop, he added, was timely due to the present economic downturn that has turned many Nigerian into emergency contractors.
The president of the NIOS, Mr. Olusegun Ajanlekoko, said the objective of the workshop was to address the crisis of confidence among stakeholders on the efficacy and effectiveness of advance payment and bond policy.
He said the government and the private sector had lost huge sums of money due to poor management of advance payment and bond.
Ajanlekoko lamented the rate at which many clients were reluctant to accept insurance bonds as sureties due to the growing poor perception of insurance bonds.
He urged the participants to address the problem of advance payment and bond and to seize the opportunity presented by the workshop to secure the services they render to clients.
A principal lecturer in the department of Quantity Surveying, Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Afikpo in Ebonyi State, Mr. Soji Onwusonye said advance payments should be re-packaged to include the amount to be paid into domiciliary account in reputable banks.
Delivering a paper titled: Advance payments and fluctuating contracts, Onwusonye said the monies should only be released to the contractor after the job had been certified by the clients.
He suggested that contract bonds should be explicitly worded to include recovery agreement.`
