Okwe Obi, Abuja
The business ties between the Federal Government and contractors is about to sour, as government has threatened to revoke contracts and refuse to pay contractors whose projects fall below expectations.
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Abdulkadir Mua’zu revealed this at a one-day interactive meeting with contractors, yesterday in Abuja.
“Many of the feeder roads are executed very poorly and last barely six months. Many boreholes break down few months after construction.  For 2019, we will not pay you if you don’t deliver quality jobs.
“You will bear me witness on the poor quality of project executions being experienced in our previous works, goods and consultancy contracts emanating from the use of substandard materials, unqualified personnel, compromised specifications, among others.
“Contractors nowadays no longer pay strict adherence to quality and standard of project delivery, terms and conditions of contracts, timely submission of all the necessary and required documents according to the contracts specifications and employment of the services of qualified and experienced personnel for proper contract execution.
“We need to address in order for the good people of Nigeria to enjoy the dividends of democracy for increased agricultural productivity and other economic activities in our rural communities.”
Meanwhile, Director, Department of Rural Development, Daniel Udo, noted that the interactive meeting would provide a platform where both parties will brainstorm and come up solutions to address problems of substandard projects.
“This interactive meeting will therefore, among other things, discuss issues of strict adherence to quality and standard of projects delivery; project supervision and monitoring; project activities implementation documentation; and community mobilisation and sensitisation.”
Udo believes that “if specific obligations regarding the various contracts/projects with every sense of national commitment and responsibility, we would have provided our rural communities with the required infrastructure facilities to improve their livelihoods.”