Secretariat
By Victor Adeoti
Osogbo, May 22, 2018 (NAN) The Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Suleiman Hassan, has enjoined the contractor handling the Federal secretariat in Osogbo, Osun, to expedite action.
Hassan gave the advice on Tuesday in Osogbo during an inspection of the project.
He expressed displeasure that the project awarded at the cost of N2.5 billion in 2012, was still under construction.
The minister said that the Federal Government had approved an upward review of the contract sum to N2.6 billion, to meet the present economic reality.
Hassan, however, said that Federal Government would no longer review the contract sum, if the contractors failed to deliver it at the expected period.
“I have no doubt in the quality of the structure; but my worry is the continuous delay of the project.
“Federal Government is not going to review the contract again because it cannot be an unending project.
“They have to deliver the project at the expected time which is March 2019.”
Hassan, however, said that of the six Federal Secretariat projects awarded across the country, only one had been completed.
Responding, Bashar Arafeh, the Project Manager of M/S Golden Construction company handling the project, said the project was delayed due to change in government and project location.
He, however, gave an assurance that the project would be completed at the expected time as the government was not owing them.
Also speaking, Mrs Lola Onwubalili, the Project Coordinator, said the project was initially billed to be completed on Feb. 25, 2014, but was later extended to June the same year.
Onwubalili, a Deputy Director in the ministry, said that the relocation of the project site was one of the issues that delayed the project.
According to the project coordinator, the project was at 53 per cent completion.
She expressed optimism that the project, a three storey building with 204 offices and 200-car parking spaces, might be completed in the next nine months if work continued at the present pace. (NAN)
VE/KOLE/NKO
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Edited by Remi Koleoso/Nkechi Okoronkwo
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