Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, has said that the procurement law is to blame for the nation’s high number of unfinished government projects.
Wike reportedly remarked this on Wednesday at the opening of the Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Flyover in the state capital of Port Harcourt, according to news sources.
The governor said that in order to get around the federal government’s procurement rules, his administration had to change the state’s procurement law.
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He said: “I found out that part of the problems we are having with so many uncompleted projects has to do with our procurement law. If you need the procurement law, it will take a very long to complete a project because how much does our procurement law (Federal) say? 15 percent to 30 percent.
“When you give a contractor 15 percent before you pay another money inflation is almost every day and then they will come for variation because of the high cost of building materials.
“But in our own case, I called Mr Speaker to say we can’t continue with this, we have to amend our own procurement law that will give us the latitude where we can pay a company we know that has the capacity to deliver within time, we pay that company 70 percent and that is why no project being handled by Julius Berger that is uncompleted.”
The 11th and 12th flyovers he built in the state, which were put into service in August 2022, he claimed, were finished in just eight months.
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The governor continued by elaborating on his invitation to the former governor of Lagos State to dedicate the Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Flyover in the state capital.
“Your Excellency, the day you came to campaign in Rivers State, you paid us a visit in the government house Port Harcourt, I am happy and I know Kayode Fayemi was there, Umahi was there, and some other people. I did say I invited one of the presidential candidates to come and commission the Mkpolu-Orowoluko Flyover; I invited another presidential candidate to commission Rumogba Flyover.
“But when you came the campaign was almost over, you had about three more days to round up your campaigns, but I said I will invite you after the election to come and commission your own project. To the glory of God, you are coming as the President-elect to commission this project,” he explained.
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