The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday criticised the contractor handling Karshi-Ara and the extension of Karshi-Apo-Road, over failure to complete the project at the agreed time.
The Chairman of the committee, Smart Adeyemi, who led other members and the Ministers of the FCT on oversight function, said it was a shame for an indigenous construction company to betray the trust of the FCT Administration and the National Assembly, by awarding the contract to the firm.
The Apo-Karshi Road project was awarded to M/S Kakatar’ CE Big Limited in 2011; with a 20-month completion period.
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 depend on excuses instead of delivering the work as scheduled.
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Adeyemi regretted that a contract that was awarded in 2011 had not been completed for several years, which he described as a failure.
According to him, Apo-Karshi Road always appears in the FCT budget and was giving the Senate headache, which must be looked into.
He asked the contractor to appear before the Senate on Thursday next week for an explanation.
“If I submit the budget before the floor of the National Assembly, my colleagues will take me up on it, they will be asking questions and I don’t want to be confused. 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 the price of items.
According to him, the project was awarded in 2011 when the prices of materials were not high.