FG says contractors who collect mobilisation funds but stay off site will face recovery action
The Federal Government has threatened to invite the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission against contractors who collect mobilisation funds for federal projects but fail to return to site.
Minister of Works, David Umahi, issued the warning on Wednesday in Abuja, saying the government would no longer tolerate contractors holding on to public funds while abandoning projects.
He also accused some contractors of giving priority to state government projects despite collecting money to execute federal jobs.
Umahi said contractors who had received government funds must deploy the money to their projects or risk recovery action.
“From next week, any contractor that has got their money and is not on site, we are going to call for the EFCC so that we can recover the money,” he said.
The minister said the government had rescoped and re-phased several projects to make them more realistic and improve their execution.
He warned that contractors could no longer rely on political connections or lobby influential stakeholders to escape their contractual obligations.
“We put up announcements to ensure that this thing ends up. So, instead of doing your projects, you are calling stakeholders to intervene,” Umahi said.
He added, “If you have the money of the Federal Government, no matter who is behind you, you will either meet us with the EFCC or you meet us in your bank to recover the money.”
FG steps up project monitoring
Umahi said the government was also introducing a more aggressive monitoring regime involving the EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, civil society organisations and student groups.
“So, it’s going to be aggressive: site visitation and supervision. We’ve alerted the EFCC, ICPC, and civil society organisations. Students are doing their own,” he said.
The minister listed several federal road and bridge projects that he said had been completed or were nearing completion.
They include sections of the Kano-Maiduguri Road, Keffi-Mararaba Road, Lafia bypass, Bonny Island Road, the Obajana Junction concrete pavement on the Lokoja-Benin corridor, Danbatta-Demesu Road, Gombe-Bauchi Road rehabilitation and the Apapa five-span bridge.
Others are the Eke-Obinagu 23-span flyover in Enugu, the 75-metre Tizm Bridge and the 24km Sagamu Interchange-Iperu Junction Road.
Umahi also defended the Federal Government’s infrastructure spending in the South-East, arguing that the region was receiving significantly more federal projects than it had under previous administrations.
He said the projects reflected President Bola Tinubu’s commitment to what he described as the full integration of the South-East into the national development agenda.
“I was a party chairman. I was a deputy governor. I was governor. And no single project of the Federal Government came to the Southeast. And today, we are having a barrage of projects,” Umahi said.
The minister urged residents of the region to support the Federal Government and cooperate across political and regional lines.
He stressed, however, that increased infrastructure spending would only translate into tangible results if contractors delivered projects for which public funds had already been released.
