Julius Berger will deliver Second Niger Bridge, others on schedule, says MD

Construction giant Julius Berger Nigeria has promised to deliver the Second Niger Bridge and other projects on schedule.
Its managing director, Dr. Lars Richter, spoke at an investigative hearing by the House Committee on Works at the weekend.
Richter said the company was working round the clock to deliver the Second Niger Bridge, the Abuja/Kano road and its section of the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway.
Richter said all the contracts were duly awarded to Julius Berger, following due process, adding that the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) duly issued letters of No Objection for the projects as required by extant procurement law.


He said: “We are an engineering contracting company, and as a going business concern, we reasonably bid for projects, but we are not by law part of the official procurement process that is the statutory duty of the Ministry.
It is the Ministry of Works that receives a Letter of No Objection to any contract; not our company. Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) itself vets the rates contractors submit to the Ministry, and the Ministry again takes the rates vetted by the BPP to the Federal Executive Council for approval by the President in Council.”
“Julius Berger is not at all entitled to a say in the process apart from the submission of our bid for a project with the Ministry. In the circumstance, I, therefore, cannot and did not say Julius Berger did not follow due process of award for the projects. We lawfully bidded for the jobs and were duly awarded the projects.”

Hon. Abubakar Kabir Abubakar


The Chairman of the House Works Committee, Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, said the committee was investigating the procurement process Julius Berger went through for the award of the contracts for the projects; the cost of each of the projects; and completion periods at which the projects were contracted to be delivered.
Richter said the Second Niger Bride was awarded to his company at the cost of N206 billion, adding that the project was about 56 percent completed.
He said section two of the Lagos/Ibadan road, which was awarded to the company, is about 71 percent completed.

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