Senate, Fashola bicker over N4b mobilisation fees

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola and the Senate Committee on Works on Wednesday had cause to argue over the payment of N4 billion mobilisation fees allegedly paid to contractors for 11 major highways across the country which were not executed.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Kabiru Gaya confirmed to officials of the ministry, led by the Minister, Mr . Babatunde Fashola, who came to defend the ministry’s 2016 budget that the payment would not go unchallenged.

The  committee demanded for details of the contracts which were awarded in 2015 and the status of the projects till date.

  “Eleven contractors have collected mobilisation fees and there is zero implementation, some collected N500m and one of the contractors collected N1bn,” Senator Gaya said.

Shedding more light on the foregoing, he said: “For instance  in the case of  dualisation of Otukpo (Benue State) township road, N1bn was paid to the contractors. Minister you need to check that and give us  details in the next meeting.

“There is no point giving a contractor mobilisation fee when he cannot perform”, Gaya said.

The committee subsequently directed the Minister to ensure that work on some of the roads are done this year, stressing the fact that some of the roads are links to some major cities.

Some road projects identified by the committee for immediate fixing are Lokoja-Okene,  Oyo-Ogbomosho,  Enugu – Port Harcourt, Kano – Maiduguri,  Lokoja-Benin and the Apapa – Oworonshoki among others.

However, Fashola, explained that not all the contractors who were mobilised had zero performances and that only N9.9bn out of the N19bn meant for the mobilisation was released to the contractors which amounted to the 15 percent permitted by law.

“It is important to take the assessment that the committee has made on mobilisation into context. In my document, contract performance is not zero. My understanding here is that  going by the entire contract sum, by law,  the contractors should get at least 15 percent to move to site.

“The part where we have zero performance in the document, if a contractor was supposed to get N1.5 billion  and he got  N500m, he cannot be  mobilised. We will check and  get back to you.”

The Minister added that N10 billion was budgeted for work on the Abuja-Lokoja road, N16 billion for Kano-Maiduguri road, while the rehabilitation of the Apapa-Oworonshoki road would gulp N5 billion.

To achieve the desired result, the ministry, he noted, has since come up with plans to implement road projects based on needs.

  “The purpose of the plan is to first address economic  routes so that a section can at least be completed.

“For 16 years we have not finished the Lagos-Ibadan road, so we want to work in one place at a time. The second Niger Bridge is another project that is of priority because of its importance.”

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