Umahi Gives Termination Notice to Contractor Handling a Section of Enugu-Port Harcourt Highway for Non-Performance ....Minister commends President Tinubu for funding highway rehabilitation, construction projects. The Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Engr. Nweze David Umahi, CON, has directed that 14 days termination notice be issued to Messrs. China Civil Engineering Construction (CECC) which is handling the Abia Section of Enugu-Port Harcourt Highway currently undergoing rehabilitation for reason of non-performance.   The Honourable Minister gave the directive this Sunday when he inspected the progress of work at Ozuaku, after Imo bridge along Enugu- Port Harcourt expressway.   According to Sen. Umahi “I've just directed that they should issue them 14 days termination notice using all due process on construction. After 14 days, if they fail to do what we have asked them to do, then we will have to do the termination notice.”   Adding “We will no longer tolerate the situation where contractors will put blank ranks on site. And they will be escalating construction costs by delaying the completion of project date.”   Continuing, he said “and we have reached an agreement in Ministry of Works that in the coming weeks, all non-performing contracts using due process will be terminated and re-awarded.”, he disclosed.   The Honourable Minister explaining the reason why contractors should demonstrate commitment said, “We let them know the suffering of Nigerians. We are here to help them, and we will do everything to help them,” he stressed.   Sen. Umahi then observed that “the cost of non-completion of this project has a lot to do with contractors. Where contractors stay on projects over and over and be pretending, thereafter, they come to request for augmentation every year refusing to leave the site.”   He however assured that “we will force them out of site either on the terms of completion or on the terms of termination.This is what we are going to do.” Stressing the imperative for the Ministry to deliver quality and good highways to Nigerians, the Honourable Minister averred that “it is very important to appreciate all the efforts of Mr. President who has been providing funds for our road infrastructure projects; which is very, very good.”   Sen. Umahi added that despite over 3,000 road projects inherited by this administration, President Tinubu must be commended for providing huge resources for our road network stating, “so it's kudos to Mr. President and it shows that Mr. President is very, very sensitive to our road infrastructure needs. And so we must do everything to support the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President, irrespective or notwithstanding any blackmail,” he declared.   Meanwhile, the Honourable Minister has lauded Arab Contractors, the contractor carrying out the ongoing rehabilitation of work on the 56km Abia State section of the Enugu -Port Harcourt highway for quality of work done with words of encouragement.   He said “the moment a contractor is performing very well, then you are a friend and that's the bottom line,” he submitted.   In the same vein, the Honourable Minister has described as excellent the job performance of Messrs CGC Nig. Ltd handling Enugu State axis of the dual carriage after his inspection of the roads.   While commending the contractor, consultant and the Controller of Works for job quality, Sen. Umahi praised the contractor for the quality of work and equipment, while requesting that  the ongoing work on one section of the highway must be completed by middle of March as agreed. ...

President Tinubu Directs Works Minister to Interface with Cement Manufacturers Over Increase in Price   .....Umahi re-inspects Contractor’s work on East-West Road.   President Bola Tinubu has directed an immediate interface with major cement manufacturers in the country over rising price of cement, says the Honourable Minister of Works, Sen. Engr. David Umahi, CON.   Speaking to journalists Saturday after the latest round of inspection section 3 of the ongoing rehabilitation of East-West highway, the Honourable Minister disclosed that President was seriously concerned with current situation of increase in cement prices.   Sen. Umahi observed about the current price of cement that “some are still selling sometimes, you know, 10,000 naira sometimes 12,000 naira; and so, on and so forth.” He added that “So it's not healthy for us. So, Mr. President has directed that we should interface with them, look at their problems, and then see who is, you know, ripping off Nigerians and see how we can help them, the transporters and then the manufacturers.”   “And that's what we're going to do on Monday,” in the meeting with Dangote Plc, BUA Plc, Lafarge Plc and others.   While commending the level of work on the East-West highway, he informed that “our job as a ministry is to encourage the contractor to do a good job according to design and according to the expectation of Nigerians.”   Continuing, he noted the impact of new engineers deployed by the Contractor, “he is a very well qualified, registered engineer. And we have met on other projects and technically he is very good. So, I am very happy for that.”   On the need to expedite work on the project, the Honourable Minister said “there is an increase in the number of sections that we are working on, because of how urgent this job is, we should have more sections. They have opened about five sections. We should have almost all the sections being worked upon.”   Commenting on the percentage of work done by the Contractor, the Honourable Minister said “well, we can't talk in terms of percentage. If we get all the quality jobs like this, then I'll go to sleep, because this is the major.”   According to him, “the foundation of every structure is more important than the structure itself. So, we are more interested in getting this done.   “When this is done, to lay the concrete, it's not going to be difficult at all. But this is the most difficult.”   He assured that the coming of rains should not be a stumbling block to the progress work, noting that a different design would be deployed, “and that's what we are doing in a lot of our interventions on the East-West Road.”   Sen. Umahi used the opportunity to reiterate that the tax credit scheme is still continuing saying “it is very obvious, and we've said it, you know, that the President never stopped any of the project, not NNPCL tax credits. He never.”   “In fact, he has also, based on the first module, given approval that we can review the projects,” he stressed.   The Honourable Minister however emphasized that “we are bound to review it. And we've started reviewing it. And we've reviewed this one. Fortunately for us, the contract of this one has not increased, even though we have redesigned it”.   Earlier, the Honourable Minister, Sen. Umahi attended Senator Barinada Mpigi’s thanksgiving service held in his hometown, Okoroma in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State. Senator Mpigi represents South-East senatorial zone of Rivers State in the Senate. ...

Implementation of Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit (Tax Credit) Scheme on Course The Honourable Minister of Works, His Excellency Sen Engr Nweze David Umahi CON has restated the commitment of the Federal Government in the implementation of the Road Infrastructure Development and Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit (Tax Credit) Scheme. The Honourable Minister made this clarification   in a Press briefing after a meeting he had with the Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue, (FIRS) Mr. Zacch Adedeji, FCA and the Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, represented by the Chief Financial Officer, Umar Isa Ajiya in his office on 16th February 2024.   Speaking to Press men, the Hon. Minister said that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR has not only said that the implementation of the Tax Credit Scheme should continue, including private, NNPC and NLNG, but has also approved the review of the projects under the Scheme due to inflation. The Minister said that the statement of the Chairman of FIRS that the project would be completed but would not be expanded was misconstrued by some media quarters as saying that the projects under the Scheme would be stopped.  He further reiterated that the Scheme is highly beneficial and that the implementation framework is encapsulated in the Executive  Order No. 007 of 2019 of the Federal Government of Nigeria.   Part of their agreement was that " all the NNPC projects on road infrastructure as started, should not be expanded, but should continue to the tune of N2.59 trillion. It was also agreed at the beginning of this Executive Order, and it was very clear that the N2.59 trillion was not the total cost of the project. Sometimes it's about 40% funding, sometimes it's about 50% funding. So, ab initio, the cost of the project up to completion was not N2.59 trillion. Now, we have scoped the entire project and then put a review on it, and the funding gap is N2.7 trillion."   "We agreed that three of us would make a joint memo to Mr. President to suggest that the N2.7 trillion funding gap be channeled to the National Assembly for approval and then the method upon which we get the money."   While thanking the Chairman of FIRS and the GCEO NNPCL for their commitment to the Scheme, he noted some of the challenges they discussed such as the problem of methodology for programme implementation and their resolve to adopt a more robust approach to solve the problem. He also said that part of their resolution was that non-performing contracts shall be terminated.    He said "contractors should go back to site and  we are going to unequivocally terminate contracts that are not performing in the coming weeks and this we  will do definitely and we are going to encourage even the local contractors especially those who can do concrete roads to come forward and register and we patronize them".   While commending  FIRS for the funding,  he further expressed, " We are happy that this NNPCL project will be completed, we have agreed  on the private Tax Credit and he has also given a blessing  that it should not be expanded  beyond  the  last seven projects that were initiated by the last administration and that we should go ahead to review  the likes of  Dangote,  BUA, MTN and then close it." ...