Some aggrieved Contractors handling projects under the federal ministry of works have urged the Minister, David Nweze Umahi, to pay them money for jobs completed insisting that delaying payment was causing them untold hardship.
The office of Accountant General of the Federation had recently released N57 billion for contracts funded through the national budget.
Such monies are released on a monthly basis in line with World Bank’s bottom-up policy where details of all works completed are always sent to the office of the Accountant General which in turn, release money for payment.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday in Abuja, the contractors claimed that such payments are being made to contractors who handled projects in different MDAs except the ministry of work.
Bolarinwa Akinpelu who spoke on behalf of the contractors wondered why the case of the ministry of works is different even as he appealed to President Bola Tinubu to direct Umahi to pay the contractors without further delay.
He said, “We collected facilities for these projects and need to pay back. Now that the projects have been delivered with certificate of completion made available, why is Umahi delaying the payment since he has received the money from the AG’s office?”
Akinpelu alleged that the works minister, for reasons best known to him, has refused to direct for them to paid and accused him of grounding activities in the ministry.
“Everything people see is mere window dressing. Umahi rarely treats file and only those with connection have their files treated” he said.
Flanked by some contractors, Akinpelu said, “Contractors want to avoid a show down or even litigation with the minister and the ministry hence our appeal on him to urgently pay us our money for projects delivered and certified okay”.
He alleged that Umahi directed the director of procurement to cancell some key contracts already awarded for which some of the contractors have started work insisting that such actions could lead to litigation.
Their complaint is coming on the heels of claims by Umahi who during a meeting with contractors handling road dualization projects funded by the NNPC said the federal government has N431bn ready for contractors.
