‘Govs who didn’t follow guidelines for federal road rehabilitation won’t be paid’

Some governors’ claims that the Federal Government is owing them for roads they had constructed on its behalf, need to be verified, a top official in the Federal Ministry of Works has said.
The official, who spoke in Abuja on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, also said that some states that got approval and carried out the rehabilitation of some federal roads in line with approved guidelines might have been paid.
The official said: “The guidelines are very clear; but some of the governors refused to adhere to them. Many of them embarked on the rehabilitation without prior approval of the Federal Government. Federal roads are different from other roads and there are specified standards which they must meet. But the governors refused to follow due process.
“They cannot expect the Federal Government to pay for jobs which it did not grant approval and which are not up to standard.
“In many cases, the so-called rehabilitation work does not measure up to the huge financial claims some of the governors are making.
“I can tell you that the states that got approval of the Federal Government and carried out the rehabilitation according to the regulations have been paid.’’
A circular on the implementation of the guidelines signed by Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) , was made available on Wednesday.
The official stressed that the guideline, which implementation took effect from August 1, 2010, according to the circular, was still in force.
The circular entitled “Guidelines for the Execution of Federal Government Projects by State Governments and Reimbursement of Expenditure’’, lists out the requirements for the rehabilitation of federal roads.
The document specifies that “the road for which the state government intends to intervene must be a Federal Road, duly gazetted and with identifiable Route Numbers.
“State governments intending to carry out any rehabilitation works on federal roads must obtain prior approval from the President through Federal Ministry of Works.
“The road to be rehabilitated must be designed and must comply with the Federal Highway Specifications and Standards.
“There must be strict compliance with the Procurement Act 2007 (Sections 17, 18,&19) in the planning, organisation and evaluation of tender and award of the road contract.’’
It further stated that a joint team comprising representatives of the federal and state governments had to supervise every stage of rehabilitation project.
The document added that a special project audit team headed by the Minister of Works with the Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement, should verify the claims of the state government before processing.
“Joint supervision and certification of each stage of the works executed on the project must be carried out with the Federal Ministry of Works engineers in the relevant State Field Office before submission of same to the Federal Ministry of Works for processing.
“For projects with presidential approval, 100 per cent of the verified claims could be settled, while recommendations on those without prior presidential approval should be submitted for the consideration of the President, on a case by case basis,’’ the circular stated.