Michael Ita Bassey
The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC said it has worked out strategies to expose and punish contractors who default in the execution of its projects.
The new measures were outlined by the Commission’s Acting Managing Director, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, at a meeting with the Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, at his residence in Owerri on Saturday.
Briefing the governor on her findings after a two-day inspection of projects in Imo State, Mrs. Semenitari said that the NDDC would upload the list of all its projects on its website to show clearly who is doing what and where.
She said: “I have directed that we immediately upload to the NDDC website the list of projects that we have. We will state the status as it is in our books, so that communities can tell us if that status report is correct.
“We will also state the name of the contractor. So, we will like to advise our contractors in all the nine states covered by the NDDC to know that the searchlight is going to beam on them from all quarters, not just from the commission.
“The commission will be there, the state governors will be there and the communities will be there and the people of Nigeria will be there.”
The NDDC boss said that the commission’s Project Monitoring and Supervision directorate would carry out an audit of the projects executed in Imo State, assuring the governor that anyone found to be involved in short-changing the people of the state, whether contractor or NDDC staff
would not go free.
She lamented that the contractor handling the N6 billion Isinweke Road, connecting Imo and Abia States, abandoned the site without any explanation. “We cannot claim to be an interventionist agency and not insist that corruption is wiped out. Mr. President has directed that we should do the right thing.”
Mrs. Semenitari also solicited the assistance of the governor to call the defaulting contractors to order. “We will like you to work with us because some of these contractors are your sons so we would like you to help us to rein them in. we need to get them to understand that we are in a new era, a new wind of change. They should be made to understand that they can no longer be allowed to take the money of our people and not deliver on projects,” she said.
“One of the things that I will ask you to discuss when you meet with your brother governors, especially as the leader of the All Progressive Congress Governors Forum, and as Owelle Ndigbo, is to tell them that whenever we are able to show that a contractor is not performing, on any job, then whether at the state level, federal or local government level, such a contractor should be blacklisted from doing business or any other work in any other part of this country. That is the only way we can
sanitize the system. Contractors that default on contracts should not be allowed to continue to get jobs.”
Mrs. Semenitari said she was disturbed the practice of some contractors who put up sign boards, claiming to be working for NDDC. She explained that before people embark on NDDC projects, the site must be properly handed over to them. “Contractors cannot just mobilize to site once they have bided for jobs, there is a process and when they put up the sign posts and don’t do any work, the commission continues to get a bad image” she said.
In his remarks, Owelle Rochas Okorocha said that the NDDC was at a new beginning and, therefore, needed time to clean up the system. He said, however, that he expected the new chief executive officer to get the contractors to live up to expectations, especially those working on projects in Imo State.
According to the governor, “it is obvious that NDDC has paid so much money to contractors who have not performed. That is the bottom line. That is an urgent matter that must be addressed first. We are not talking about new projects now. If all the old projects are executed in line with the contract terms, I am sure Imo State will benefit from NDDC.
He said further: “While I commend you, I think that you have a lot of work to do. We need to sanitize the NDDC and get old jobs done. We are not saying you should arrest; we are only saying that they should get back to site to do the jobs for which money has been paid.”
