By ABAH SUNDAY, Abuja
As the new year 2024 begins to roll by, Minister of Works Sen. David Umahi has urged the staff to be on their toe in working to ensure that the vision for the ministry of sustainable road infrastructure development in the country by the Tinubu administration is achieved.
The Minister who gave the charge on Thursday while meeting with the directors in the ministry also proposed a review of agreements, cost, geo-technical evaluation among others of existing contracts with a view to addressing the bottlenecks that have delayed or hindered execution of road projects across the country in the past.
Reiterating his commitment to the welfare of the workers, Umahi said what matters is how much of roads has been constructed or made motorable to ease the sufferings of Nigerians when it comes to mobility, adding that irrespective of position or social status, anyworker who is found wanting in terms of performance risks being kept aside or outright replacement.
He told directors that there is a difference between the ministry and other ministries, departments, and agencies, MDAs, due to the fact thatit (the Works Ministry) is measured in terms of the how much and the impact of the roads constructed.
He said, “The difference between us and other MDAs is that ours is what you can achieve in terms of roads, not speech. And our office is not the normal civil service office where you spend eight hours and close, at times you need to even work a weekends,” assuring that anyone who works would be appreciated.
Urging them to have the fear of God in handling the assignment of the ministry, Umahi disclosed that the President had made available the needed funds for execution of road contracts, but that there was need for review of the contract terms due to previous experiences.
Umahi who assured that that there is fund for road projects said, “There is need to review our project agreements and costs. When we give the right costing, the little resources we have will be able to go a long way towards meeting the expectation. We are to review what have been so disadvantageous to our road construction,” adding that 50 per cent of the funds allocated as road palliatives had been released by the federal government.
The Minister who scored contract supervision and performance low also proposed a review of the way and manner projects used to be supervised.
Tasking the directors and contractors on integrity, Umahi identified bad construction method, poor supervision, substandard materials as foremost challenges of road contract execution in the country.
According to him, 18 retired security personnel are to be engaged in supervision and monitoring for each of the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The Minister also assured that arrangements were in top gear in line with the present administration’s vision for the sector for uncompleted or bad portions of federal roads, such as the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano road and the Keffi-Nasarawa road leading to Loko-Oweto Bridge in Nasarawa State, to receive attention before the end of the year.