Kebbi House orders airport contractors to refund N6.4bn to state

The Kebbi State House of Assembly has or­dered the six con­tractors who handled the construction of Sir Ahma­du Bello International Air­port to refund N6.4 billion to the state government.

The contractors are CGC Nigeria Ltd, Avsatel Com­munication Ltd and Gener­al Engineering Co-ground Lighting Ltd. Others are Strauss Corporation Ltd, High Global Solid Resourc­es Ltd and Wago Global Venture Ltd.

The House had set up a special investigation com­mittee on the contracts awarded for the upgrading of the airport on March 30, 2017, under the chairman of the Deputy Speaker, Hon Muhammad Buhari Aliero, and other 12 members.

According to the report, which was made available to journalists during a press conference by the House Chairman Committee on Information, Hon Saliu M. Dangoje revealed that all the contracts were inflated.

In the 27-page report submitted to the House on Thursday, it was alleged that the contract sum was supposed to be N8.623 bil­lion but inflated to N10.615 billion

“To ascertain the amount of money expended on the upgrading of the Airport, the committee was guided by the payment made by the State Ministry of Fi­nance in respect of the up­grading project including ancillary and Consultancy contracts relating to it and special imprest released to the Airport in 2014 which stood at N18.792 billion between 2012 and 2015.”

In its recommendations, the committee also stated that the contract for the extension of the Runway, Apron, Taxiway, and Road network awarded to CGC Nigeria Limited at the sum of N9, 390,355,427.67 but was inflated to N10.615 bil­lion.

“The contractors were paid the inflated sum of N10.615 billion. However, from the consultant’s audit, the contract can be execut­ed with N8.623 billion.

“The committee recom­mended that the contractor should refund to the Kebbi State government the sum of N1.986 billion.”

Similarly, the contractor that handled the construc­tion of Control Tower was asked to refund the sum of N26.032 million while the contractor that constructed the Terminal building was to refund N321.851 mil­lion. - The Authority