President Goodluck Jonathan has directed all agencies of government to ensure that contract value is not augmented beyond 15 per cent by thoroughly researching and costing contracts before they are awarded. The directive, issued at Wednesday’s meeting of the Executive Council of the Federation, FEC, is to ensure that the culture of augmenting contracts after award, which sometimes rises higher than the actual amount of the contract, is stopped. Briefing journalists after the weekly meeting chaired by Mr. Jonathan, the Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, said the President directed that any augmentation above 15 per cent of the original price of the contract should be thrown out, except those approved by the President himself. “Mr. President gave a directive to all members of council to henceforth not bring any augmentation to council that is beyond 15 per cent of the original cost of the projects. The President frowned at a situation in which sometimes augmentation or variations of contracts end up being higher than the original contracts awarded,” he said. “Mr. President believes that if MDA’s do their jobs thoroughly through proper planning and of course cost evaluation before award, the incidence of half valuation of contracts will be avoided and so he gave a directive that henceforth any MDA that has any variation on a contract that goes beyond 15 per cent should not present it to council unless that variation has the President’s personal approval.” The minister said Mr. Jonathan also directed the Bureau for Public Procurement not to entertain any application for valuation of contracts that exceed 15 per cent of the original cost. “So it is expected that all agencies of government who are in the process of giving awards for contracts must make sure that they are thorough in the pre-plan for those projects and also ensure that the costing is professional to avoid variations that go very high and leave cost to the government,” he added. Abuja expansion The FEC also approved N22.6 billion for the Provision of roads and engineering infrastructure to new layout and diplomatic area as Phase II contract of the ongoing Guzape Lot II District infrastructure. This follows a memo tabled before council by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, seeking council’s approval for the provision of roads and engineering infrastructure to new layout and diplomatic area as Phase II contract of the ongoing Guzape Lot II district infrastructure. The areas were laid out and allocated in 2005 to senior government officials including members of the National Assembly, well placed Nigerians, diplomatic missions, and influential members of the general public. The construction of infrastructure in the area is expected to generate about 600 jobs and was approved by the council for N22.6 billion to Gilmor Engineering (Nigeria) Limited with a completion period of three months.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Jul 2013 07:41:34 +0000
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