The Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, on Wednesday, warned contractors handling Federal Government road projects that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will be invited to recover funds released to them if the money is not found on project sites from next week.
Umahi, who spoke at a press briefing in Abuja, said his ministry would intensify site visits and supervision to ensure contractors execute projects for which they had received funds.
He said the government had observed that some contractors handling federal projects were more committed to state projects, stressing that such practice would no longer be tolerated.
“From next week, any contractor that has their money and it’s not on site, we are going to call for the EFCC so that we recover the money,” Umahi said.
The minister said contractors holding Federal Government funds would have to account for the money, irrespective of who might be backing them.
“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,” he said.
Umahi said the ministry had commenced arrangements for aggressive site visitation and supervision of federal projects across the country.
According to him, the EFCC, Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), civil society organisations and students had been alerted to monitor project execution.
He added that six Senior Special Assistants had also been assigned to President Bola Tinubu for project visitation and supervision, while the ministry would continue to monitor their activities.
The minister said the move was also aimed at ensuring that contractors exhausted funds already released to them before seeking additional funding.
Umahi explained that following the decision of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. to operate as a private company and stop directly funding Federal Government projects under the previous tax-credit arrangement, the administration had begun the process of restructuring and re-scoping the affected projects.
He said the projects inherited under the NNPC tax-credit scheme established by Executive Order 007 of 2019 had been moved into renewable infrastructure funding.
“However, all the money that the contractors have in their hands, they must exhaust it to earn more money. So, we have rescoped the project; we have refaced it,” he said.
Umahi said the Federal Government would no longer tolerate contractors who collect project funds but fail to mobilise to site, stressing that project execution must correspond with funds released.
He also disclosed that the ministry was compiling an updated compendium of completed and ongoing road projects across the country, which would be made available on its website.
