FEC okays five contracts for UniZik

The Federal Executive Council (NAN) has approved the augmentation on five contracts at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State.

Lai Mohammed, Minister of Information and Culture, briefed State House correspondents on behalf of the Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba after the FEC meeting on Wednesday in Abuja.

The council meeting was presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

Mohammed said that the significant thing about the contract was that they were awarded by the university itself; “some in 2007, some in 2010, some in 2012 and some in 2015”.

He said that due to the inability of the university to execute the projects for reasons ranging from lack of funding to other sundry reasons, it appealed to the Federal Government to help complete the contracts.

“The contract, which was then awarded at the sum of N2.5 billion due to contract variation, cost of materials has now been jacked up to N4.6 billion.

“In other words, the Federal Government is making available to the university the sum of N2.1 billion to augment the contract, which is awarded between 2007 and 2015, but were unable to complete.

“The five contracts are the construction of students’ hostels, Type D, at Awka, which was augmented in the sum of N120 million; construction of students’ hostel, Type A, at Nnewi, for which we have to provide an extra N385 million.

“Construction students hostel, Type A, Awka; also, here we’ve provided an extra N104 million and then the construction of Faculty Building for Physical Science and Biosciences in the sum of N1.2 billion, raising the contract sum from the original N983 million to N2.243 billion.

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“Finally, construction and completion of the mini-stadium complex in favour of another contractor, which we had to augment with the sum of N510 million.’’

The minister said the contracts were accommodated under the Needs Assessment–an intervention fund that the Federal Ministry of Education made available to assist the educational institutions all over Nigeria.

Mohammed said the Ministry of Education presented another memo for approval for the procurement of landed property for the residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Dutse, Jigawa State.

“This is a very short memo, which actually sought council’s approval to provide accommodation for the vice-chancellor; and of course, it means the university was purchasing a property in Dutse, which will serve as the official accommodation of the vice-chancellor.

“After the due process has been observed, including whether the seller has the title and whether it was adequately covered by Certificate of Occupancy, the council approved that property be purchased for the sum of N161 million, inclusive of 7.5 percent VAT.

“It comes with the delivery period of two weeks for the official residence of the Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University of Dutse, Jigawa State.’’

Mohammed said that Minister of Communication, Isa Pantami, also presented a memo.

He said the memo sought the council’s approval for the award of contract for the provision of project management services for the implementation of the Local Area Network infrastructure, upgrade projects in identified ministries, departments, and agencies.

The minister said that the contract was in the sum of N847, 000, inclusive of 7.5 percent VAT and this is to be delivered within a period of 12 months.

Mohammed said that the council had already, through an intervention project, approved money for the upgrade of the infrastructure of the Land Area Networks.

According to him, the purpose of the upgrade is to improve Nigeria’s communication infrastructure between ministries, departments, and agencies of government.