FERMA blames contractor for delay on Kano-Gwarzo Road

The construction is being done by an indigenous company.

The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) in Kano State on Tuesday attributed delay in the completion of rehabilitation on Kano-Gwarzo Road to lack of seriousness and commitment by the contractor.

The rehabilitation work is being carried out by an indigenous Construction Firm, Muslac Techno Company Limited.

Michael Akuyo, the Federal Road Maintenance Engineer in the state, made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kano.

He said that the agency had to write a letter to the contractor threatening to terminate the contract before he could resume to site after abandoning the work. He said the contract, which completion date was due in December 2012, had to be extended by another three months.

According to him, the inability of the contractor to finish on time has caused a lot of concern to both the agency and motorists plying the road. He noted that most of the indigenous contractors lacked the ‘financial muscle’ to carry out the work.

‘’If not that the government is trying to encourage them, they don’t have the financial muscle to execute the work,” he said.

He, however, warned all contractors carrying out rehabilitation on federal roads in the state to expedite action and complete the work within the time frame.

Mr. Akuyo said that work had been completed on the rehabilitation of Tamburawa Bridge along Kano-Zaria Road, pointing out that similar work had already started at the Bagauda Bridge.

He also said that work on the N190 million Eastern bye-pass road project was in progress. When contacted, the contractor, Chris Okoye, said lack of asphalt compelled him to stop the work.

‘’As at the time we abandoned the site, production of asphalt had stopped. So that was why we stopped work. The production of asphalt has resumed and that is why we also resumed to site now,” he said.

On the complaint against indigenous contractors, Mr. Okoye, who is the Managing Director of the company, said even foreign contractors relied solely on Nigerians in the execution of their contracts.

‘’We should not consider them better than us because they use our people as part of their workforce,” he said.

(NAN)