The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Representatives on Tuesday queried the Ministry of Works over abandoned Gidanwaya-Guaran Dutse-Waman Rafi-Saminaka-Kano Road project of which payment of N1.46 billion had been made in full.
The Committee issued the query when the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Yakubu Adam appeared before the Committee after failing to honour two previous invitations over the matter.
The Committee Chairman, Hon Bamidele Salam, indicated that the money for the project was a loan by the Federal Government.
At the end of the hearing, the Committee ordered that the Permanent Secretary must come back on Monday November 4 while he was also directed to submit all relevant documents related to the project by Friday November 1.
This, according to the Chairman, would enable the Committee to study them for a proper probe of the matter.
“You were invited concerning an exercise that is about to commence which is the inspection of critical national assets especially roads that were constructed in the last five years.
“Information we received from the Debt Management Office, DMO indicated the number of Roads were even undertaken with loans taken by the federal government. But in particular, a particular road with the title Gidanwaya-Guardian Dutse-Waman Rafi-Saminaka-Kano road in Kaduna State awarded by the Federal Ministry of Works on the 5th of October 2022 and the sum of N1.461 billion to Messrs Jam Jam Dynamic Platform Limited.
“This Road was supposed to be completed within 12 months. There’s an allegation that the road awarded in 2022 has not been started as we speak and there has been full payment of the sum by the Federal Ministry of Works to the contractor concerned.
“As a Committee of equity, we believe strongly that we must give all parties fair hearing. You should provide information on the status of the road. We asked for certain documents to be provided and we expect that you would provide us with better insight so the Committee can take a decision on the best way to ascertain the truthfulness of the claim that road has been done, while full payment has been effected to the contractor”, he said.
The Permanent Secretary in his response said the amount was not for the entire stretch which is 133km but a portion of the road adding that the Road was done in phases due to paucity of funds.
He expressed surprise that the Road had not been done and apologised for not honouring the previous invitations as he claimed that they did not get to him.
