A terminal operator at the TCIPC had alleged that the contract to rehabilitate the quay wall and apron at the port, which was awarded to Messrs Johnak Engineering Company Limited by the Nigerian Ports Authority(NPA) , has been abandoned by the contractor.
Messrs Yolas Consultants are listed as the project consultants.
On the other other hand, the Transport Minister, Senator Idris Umar, at the recent Ministerial Platform in Abuja, had declared the contract as fully-completed.
The Managing Director of Port and Cargo Handling Services Limited (PCHS), Mr. John Robert Jenkins, told journalists that that the TCIPC quay wall and apron rehabilitation project contract was unsatisfactory.
Jenkins said: “Repair of the quay apron and quay wall are very important to our operations. The contractor that the NPA awarded the contract to has not, in our own opinion, given the assignment any serious attention. The contract is facing undue delay, and the job being done is far from being satisfactory.”
Contacted for the organisation’s position on the issue, the General Manager, Public Affairs, NPA, Capt. Iheanacho Ebubeogu, requested to be given some time to get more information from the NPA Engineering Department.
As Ebubeogu put it: “I’ll get back to you; let me get more details from the Engineering Department. You can see me on Monday for details.”
However, an industry expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, readily stated: “If the NPA says the contract is 100 per cent completed at the mid-term Ministerial Platform in Abuja, and the terminal operator, who is the end-user of the project, says it is far from being completed, then there is cause for alarm.”
He added: “It is either the contract is over-bloated, or the contractor has not been properly mobilised, or maybe somebody is short-changing the other party. It is one thing to complete a project and another to execute it at the right cost. These and many ills are what is bedevilling the maritime sector.”
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