FROM RAHILA ABDULLAHI, KADUNA
Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani inherited liabilities of unpaid contractors, over invoicing and lack of documentation in road construction, as well as low capacity utilisation in the water sector.
Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Ibrahim Hamza, who disclosed this at the quarterly ministerial press briefing at the Government House, Kaduna, said the governor had overcome most of the challenges.
Hamza pointed out that the present administration thought out-of-the box and came up with workable solutions that enabled the continuation of inherited projects and the initiation of new ones.
“Since the coming of this administration in the last 22 months, Sani’s government has done remarkably well. We have tried, notwithstanding the bedevilling challenges and obstacles that we encountered in the ministry itself and all the parastatals.
“We have largely overcome almost all the challenges that we met. These challenges are not limited to liabilities inherited, vandalisation, lack of proper documentation. Contracts were awarded without documentation. Some were over-inflated and there were no records.
‘’So, we had to sit down, thought out-of-the-box, and see how we can remedy these things. We are battling between the challenge of remedying the wrongs that were created in the past and making progress. But everything is going on well,’’ the commissioner said.
He added that Governor Sani had awarded 78 road projects, totalling 775 kilometres in the last 21 months in spite of the challenges.
According to him, 21 of these roads “have already been completed and have been put into use, thereby creating more economic activities across the 23 local governments.’’
Hamza, however, lamented that there were a lot of challenges in the urban renewal programme of the previous administration because of the liabilities that his ministry inherited.
The commissioner noted that some contractors who received payment that were enough to finish the project have not completed it, yet they are bringing outrageous claims.
According to him, some of the claims can finance the construction of new road projects, after the contractors have been paid previously for the amount of work done.
He disclosed that the administration met capacity utilisation of the water supply scheme at less than five percent, but has risen to 30 percent and by the end of the year, would reach 100 percent.
He recalled that a lot had been done or invested in the water sector by the previous administration, “but unfortunately, the result is not commensurate with what has been invested.
‘’Some money was also borrowed from the Islamic Development Bank to the tune of $81 million. Another loan of $101 million was collected for distribution from African Development Bank.
“There was another by the federal government to the tune of $17.2 billion,’’ he disclosed.
According to him, the governor declared a state of emergency in the water sector because of the challenges bedevilling it and that the effort had tremendously improved water supply in Kaduna State.
