By Uko Okon
The Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, has terminated the contract of Raycon construction company, the contractor handling the Ekim-Odukpani portion of the Calabar-Itu highway, due to poor delivery.
Umahi made the decision while inspecting the level of progress of construction on the damaged calabar-Itu highway on Saturday.
He stated that the termination became necessary because Raycon failed to meet the terms and conditions of the contract.
The Minister expressed disappointment at the poor state of the road, describing it as one of the worst in the country.
He said, “This job was awarded to Raycon as an intervention contract, having taken it over from Julius Berger because of very unreasonable price they gave us. After 14 months of negotiation, we had to take it over and we gave it to Raycon.
“But i think giving the job to Raycon is a mistake on the side of the ministry and we admit the failures on our side because we did not do due diligence to know whether Raycon has the capacity to do this job.
“This job is definitely beyond the capacity of Raycon and their kind of equipment, it may not be their fault, but this is one of the worst roads in this country.”Our new nature of agreement is such that when a contractor is given a work, he has to mobilize to site and they start permanent work”.
Umahi stressed that it is “now compulsory that contractor can deploy their own resources because the procurement act says that the client may pay mobilization, not shall pay, not must pay and this is very important.”
According to the Minister, the termination of the contract is necessary to enable the ministry to bring in a new contractor who can deliver the project to the required standards.
“We cannot continue to waste public funds on a project that is not yielding the desired results,” he said.
The Minister further directed the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Works to direct Controller in writing to issue a stop work order on Raycon and ensure that a joint measurement of the work done so far is conducted.
He also directed that a new contractor, Hitech, be brought in as a replacement to complete the project.
