Senate decries failure of contractor to complete Apo-Karshi road

The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Tuesday came down hard on the contractor handling the Karshi-Ara road and the extension of the Karshi-Apo road, over failure to complete the project at the agreed time.

Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Smart Adeyemi, who led other members and Ministers of the FCT on oversight function visit, said it was a shame for an indigenous construction company to betray the trust of FCT the Administration and the National Assembly.

Reports that the Apo-Karshi road project was awarded to M/S Kakatar’ CE . Big. Limited in 2011, with the completion period of 20 months.

He said the company had acknowledged the full funding of the project by the current FCT Administration, and there was no reason for the firm to give excuses instead of delivering the work as scheduled.

Adeyemi regretted that a contract that was awarded in 2011 has not been completed for several years, which he described as a failure.

According to him, Apo-Karshi road has always appeared in the FCT budget and this was a course for concern to the Senate.

He asked the contractor to appear before the Senate next week Thursday for explanation.

“If I submit the budget before the floor of the National Assembly, my colleagues will take me up on it.

“You should be ashamed of yourself and the company, the fund has been provided for the work, why give excuses again?

“I remember when this job started and I had cause to come here in either 2013 or 2014, you gave us the same promises and excuses.

“If I am the Minister I will revoke this job, and ask them to refund the government, if you can’t do the job why should you accept it? There is no reason again to continue with the company.

Also, the chief site engineer, Ezekiel Panam, who spoke on behalf of the Managing Director, said the delay in the project was due to the increase in price of items.

According to him, the project was awarded in 2011 when the prices of materials were not high.

“No administration has funded this project as the current one has done, part of the delay was funding but since you came on board you settled it. This job was awarded in 2011, now prices of materials are not the same, so we are trying our best to deliver”, Panam said.