The House of Representatives has threatened sanctions against the Director-General of Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, Mr. Aliyu Mamman, for turning down an invitation from its committee to give details on its approval of a third lane for the partly abandoned N50 billion Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road.
The committee threatened to issue the sanctions Thursday, after the panel’s deliberation on the matter on Wednesday.
The Chairman of the Committee, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar (APC-Works), decried the absence of the DG
He said it was unacceptable and a slight on the committee for the Director-General not to appear before it and not deem it fit to write to the committee to give the reason for not honouring the invitation.
Ikenna Onyechere Elezieanya in his contribution also expressed disappointment at the Director-General for refusing to attend the meeting.
A motion for the suspension of the BPP DG was moved by Dandutse M. Mohammed and seconded by Ari Abdul Mohammed, leading to an adjournment dine die.
Recall that the committee had last week, ordered the construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, to submit monthly progress reports on the multi-billion Naira Abuja-Kano, Lagos-Ibadan highways.
He said Julius Berger confirmed to the committee that it had so far received N50,856,044,301.27 billion, representing 32 percent of the total.
He noted that the progress of work on the project was currently at 26.7percent after 18 months into the 36-month completion period.
“The committee doubts strongly the capacity of Julius Berger Plc to deliver the remaining 73.3 percent in the next 18 months,” Abubakar noted.
The committee directed the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing to consider the option of involving other contractors to handle different sections of the road to ensure the project was completed on time to save lives and property.
The meeting also resolved that Julius Berger should immediately open up the completed but closed portions of the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road and to minimize and streamline road diversions as advised by the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC.
It equally advised Julius Berger to immediately attend to the potholes on the road and jointly work with the Works Ministry and FRSC to ensure sanity and security were restored on the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria-Kano road.
