The Minister of Works, David Umahi, has clarified the reason behind the Federal Government’s decision to stop funding all ongoing projects at the same time.

According to Umahi, the decision was made due to a large disparity between the increase in contract costs or project costs and the available funding.

In a briefing with journalists in Abuja recently, the minister, stated, “We have been in this war with our contractors since September 2023. We are aware that the contractors and no stakeholders in this country have not reported to us about the crisis.

“Our position has been that it is a kind of marriage and so the two parties must come to an agreement that we are the one, that is, we are the one offering the job and so if our conditions are not conducive for you, there is nothing to worry about,” he said.

The minister explained that the government was reviewing ongoing projects to determine the ones to prioritise and complete, taking into account the availability of funds.

“In reviewing the inherited projects, what we are doing now is reviewing the projects in line with the availability of funds and proposing to the Federal Government if such a project has attained about 80 per cent completion.

“They will make a proposal to the Federal Government that, in subsequent completion, money should be made available, and such a project should be made a priority so that it could be completed. And that is simply what FG directed, and that is simply what we are going to do. We are reviewing such projects to go back to the Federal Executive Council in line with their directive. The President has not stopped all inherited projects.

“On the issue of new projects, if we have a contractor that cannot complete at least one kilometre of roads, we are not going to carry out such a corporation. And that is what the Federal Executive Council is concerned about,” he said.

He noted that contractors had been putting the ministry under very severe pressure, adding that there were political angles where politicians were also pressuring the ministry.

“They just want to hear from their constituencies and their communities and states that these projects have been awarded. Because if we make, for example, N500m as appropriated against, say, N50bn as the procurement, it is just to help the contractor because the contractor cannot do anything with that money but put it in his or her pockets. We don’t want to allow public funds to go that way. And this is very important.

“So, in line with clause 51, subsection 1 of the special conditions of contracts, which are all part of the contracts to all sides and their agreements, the clause says that the engineer can direct, subject to approval by the employer, that the contract signs be changed in terms of reducing the quantity, the quantity that forms the time it is. And so we’re going to be relying on that clause to begin to review contracts that were inherited within the limits of the availability of funds.

PUNCH