The House of Representatives Committee on Public Procurement has given the Consultant and the Contractor in charge of a library project, which partially caved in in February, until 2pm Monday to submit all necessary documents in their defence.
The consultant, Mr Oreoluwa Fadayomi, a structural engineer and the Contractor, Mr Olatunde Runsewe of Durum Co Ltd, appeared before the Committee with Principal Officers of the University and some members of Governing Council on Saturday at the Senate Building of the University.
Chairman of the Committee, Oluwole Oke, said after a tour of projects in the university that the Committee visited to investigate the collapsed formwork of the ongoing eight-floor library project as well as alleged financial infractions contrary to the Procurement Act of 2007 as brought to its notice by the Pro-Chancellor/Chairman of Council of the University, Dr Wale Babalakin.
“We are here pursuant to resolution of the House mandating us to investigate the alleged infractions of provisions of public procurement Act 2007 and other financial issues. And we invited the stakeholders.
“Even though the regulators – the NUC and the Federal Ministry of Education have already taken steps, we felt that the allegations of the Pro-Chancellor were very weighty and we felt we should investigate his claims.”
During the inspection of the library project and the hearing that followed, the Committee disagreed with the Contractor and Consultant about whether part of the building collapsed or not.
While a member of the Committee, Solomon Maren, an engineer, said many other buildings that came down under construction had collapsed in similar way, the Consultant (Fadayomi) and Contractor (Runsewe) insisted it was the form-work, not the building itself that collapsed.
However, Fadayomi said he had warned the Contractor that the building could collapse if the proper steps were not taken and even refused to approve progress thereby delaying the project.
He said the contractor lacked the expertise, equipment and capacity to continue the N1.9 billion project and threatened to pull out if he continued with the same team he had been working with.
“The structure is sound. The management of the contractor as it was (as at the time of incident)) cannot continue with the project.
“Here is a job we should have handed over in November last year and we are still on the First floor. And why were we on the first floor, because I was diligently monitoring and refusing to approve shoddy work and I was being blacklisted and blackmailed.
“We changed supervisor over three times because we said no! They would give us methodologies that would not work and we would say No!
“The Management; the staffing have to be overhauled to continue the project. If it is the same persons and process, Sir, my firm will withdraw from that project because we cannot continue to supervise at that level. They have to up their game if they have to continue,” he said.
When asked if the building could still stand or should be brought down, Fadayomi said there were ways to remedy the mistake of the Contractor that led to the form work’s partial collapse provided a new team was in charge of work at the site.
With the Consultant and Contractor not having some of the required documents demanded by the Committee the hearing was adjourned till Monday 11am in Room 236 of the House of Representatives building in Abuja to allow the Consultant and Contractor to make presentations concerning their roles in the mishap.
Oke said: “On the allegation of the University library, a portion of it caved in, we inspected, we saw it, we summoned the contractor.
“The Consultant that the university engaged to manage that project, they’ve been asked to make presentations to the Committee by Monday unfailingly because they are the experts.
“We are mindful of the future of our children; their safety. We don’t want a situation where we think it is safe to continue the project and when it is finished they are reading and something else would happen. We owe the students a duty of care,” Oke said.
As issues around Procurement was at the heart of the probe, Oke underscored the role of the Vice-Chancellor as the Chairman of the institution’s Tenders Board and the Procurement Planning Board and urged him to take full charge as he would be answerable to the government in case of any infractions.
“Part of the thing we established was that there was no clear understanding of the functions of the Council and the Management of the Council.
“We drew the attention of the Council members to the Provisions of Section 20 of the Procurement Act which states that it is the Accounting Officer that has the mandate to manage, supervise; to ensure compliance to the provisions of the Procurement Act. That has been stated clearly.
“The Accounting Officer of the University is the Vice Chancellor. And it is clearly stated in Section 20 that it shall be immaterial whether he has delegated a person or group of persons to carry out one function or the other, that in case of any infractions, he shall be personally liable.
“And we have drawn his attention to this provision that henceforth he should take charge of things. If anything goes wrong the government will hold him responsible,” he said.
The building was only 25 per cent complete when the mishap happened and the contractor had been paid N444million.
The University management was also asked to provide documents of financial activities in the University.