The House of Representatives has expressed worry over the delay in the completion of Abuja-Kaduna and Lagos-Ibadan roads projects, awarded by thd Federal Government since 2013.
The House also chided the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) for allegedly awarding the contract to Julius Berger, without due process.
The Chairman, House Committee on Works, Abubakar Kabir (Kano-APC), made the position of the Committee known at an investigative hearing on Tuesday.
The Lawmakers while grilling BPP Director-General, Mamman Ahmadu, queried the issuance of no-objection certificate to Julius Berger without taking the interest of Nigerians at heart.
The lawmakers also faulted the decision by BPP to clear the award of a road contract of more than 400 kilometres, to a single contractor Julius Berger
In his response, the Director General of BPP Ahmadu, said he was not satisfied with the Abuja-Kaduna road project so far after inspection.
“I’m not happy, with the work so far. The Lagos-Ibadan project, was conceived as public-private partnership, but no performance from the concesssioner . It was awarded during Jonathan’s time and because of poor performance, it was re-awarded.
“The Second Niger bridge, likewise started as BPP project, but failed to perform and it was converted to a contract financed by government and started by Julius berger.
“Abuja Kaduna Kano was initiated to Open competitive bidding and was later given out too. It was much later becos budgetary provisions was not coming regularly and government took it up to finance”, he said.
Contributing, Mark Gbillah(PDP-Benue) said the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road, began as open competitive bidding, as he sought to know and asked the procurement process adopted to give the job to julius berger .
The lawmaker sought for justification on why Julius berger was awarded the contract, having not been part of the initial process
On his part, Bello Kaoje questioned the rationale behind the BPP awarding roads more than 400 kilometer to a single contractor Julius Berger.
