The Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory on Wednesday in Abuja expressed dissatisfaction over Julius Berger’s failure to appear before it, saying that no company is superior to Nigeria.
The committee had on Tuesday summoned 25 contractors, handling road projects in the FCT and other parts of the country over allegations of corruption.
However, out of the 25 companies, only 12 showed up. Julius Berger, which the committee noted was handing the highest number of projects, was conspicuously absent.
Berger had instead sent a letter to the Committee, saying that authorised persons to speak on the issues the committee was investigating were out of the country.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Smart Adeyemi (PDP-Kogi), expressed anger at Berger’s failure to show up, stressing that the company was not superior to other companies.
“There is no company that is superior to the others and there is no company that is more powerful than the Federal Republic of Nigeria.? Let nobody have that misconception.
“If Julius Berger fails to honour our invitation, we know how to go about it.? This is an insult to Nigeria and we take exception to this letter from Julius Berger.”
Other members of the committee also expressed displeasure at Berger’s inability to show up, noting that this was unacceptable.
Adeyemi, however, told the contractors that the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that they were executing contracts awarded to them according to international best practices.
“Nigeria is passing through a very tough period now.? There is crisis in our land emanating from poverty and unemployment because government is finding it difficult to meet the needs of the people.
“As legislators, we owe it a duty to expose where there are problems;? expose areas where we feel government has been short-changed so that government can have enough to meet the needs of the people.”
The lawmaker maintained that the committee was not out to witchhunt any company but only to ensure that Nigeria got value for money paid on contracts.
“We have no company in mind as our target, our only target is to make sure there is value for money paid on contracts.”
Since most of the contractors were absent, the committee adjourned the meeting to Monday Feb. 27.
The Committee also asked the contractors to submit written presentations to the committee to address issues such as the indigenisation policy, the issue of foreign component, minimum wage and some public private partnership contracts.
“In the course of our oversight function, we discovered that our people (Nigerians) in some companies have not been treated well and some of them were grossly underpaid.
“The minimum wage is N18,000 but at some sites, the Nigerian workers told us they were receiving N12,000.
“The public private partnership, we want to see the MOUs of this arrangement to ensure that Nigeria is not cheated in the course of this.”
The Committee also threatened to ask the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA) to stop payment for contracts that were perceived as not being handled according to international best practices.
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