The Minister of Works, David Umahi, says contractors using asphalt in road construction must sign an indemnity agreement of 30 years duration of the roads with the ministry.
Umahi said this on Monday in Abuja at a news conference to unfold the general direction of the ministry during his tenure.
He said that contractor using asphalt would not be stopped but must sign the durability agreement
The minister, however, said that construction of concrete roads would not be enforced on projects awarded already.
He added that contractors would need to give assurance that roads built with asphalt would last up to 30 years though the concrete roads would last longer.
“We are not stopping asphalt works but it is not possible to be paid for a job that we know will not stand for five years.
”Contractors hide under the funny excuse of overloading for roads not standing long.
“Nigeria must get value for their money paid as tax, enough of contractors doing shady work and getting paid for it.
“The concrete road when properly done will last for 50 years and we have success where we have done that apart from the one I did in Ebonyi.
”In fact before I left office we delivered Abakaliki Ridgeway Road, which was funded by the African Development Bank,” he said.
Speaking on funding for roads, Umahi however, noted with concern that the way Nigeria’s budgetary allocation was designed was not encouraging for contractors to timely complete federal road projects.
Umahi said the release of funds to contractors on an annual basis made road projects linger as in most cases the contractor had little access to funds to purchase the raw materials.
He said that the delay further gave rise to contract variation as inflation affected the original amount agreed for the project.
“When you give a contractor N150 millions a year for a N600 millions road project, he will pocket it while mobilising to site without doing anything on ground.
“When confronted, he will say he is yet to get the material he requested for outside the country as the money was not enough,” he said.
He appealed to the National Assembly to release over N650 billion it withheld for some projects across the country, which he said were almost complete but lack of the fund is still keeping the contractors on site.
He said if these funds were not returned the roads would not be completed and this, according to him, would have a negative economic impact.
