…We didn’t bid for contracts –Sermatech
By Adewale Sanyaolu
The Federal Government’s anti-corruption campaign may soon catch up with some of the its Ministries as the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, is now in the eye of the storm following the denial of an indigenous construction company that it never bid for a N1,151,520,000 road construction projects whose mobilisation fee is currently being processed.
The firm, Sermatech Nigeria Limited, said its attention was recently drawn to the joint award of road construction contracts in respect of Balare Road in Kano State and Ringim Road in Jigawa State to one Messers Interaccess Projects Limited/Sermatech Nigeria Limited when it indeed never bidded for such jobs.
‘‘It has also come to our further attention that processing of the mobilisation fee for the execution of the said contracts is ongoing at the aforementioned Ministry.”
Further investigation by Daily Sun on the website of the Budget Office revealed that the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing listed the contract under its Works schedule for the 2017 Appropriation Act with code number: FMOWP51908755 for the sum of N1,151,520,000.
Sermatech said it did not, either solely or jointly with any other company, participate in the bidding of any of the aforementioned contracts and cannot be said to have been awarded a job it did not bid for.
Curiously, it said how the company’s name came to be associated with the contracts remains a mystery, which only the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing could unravel.
‘‘Ours is a responsible indigenous engineering, procurement and construction company that has over the years executed projects for different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government of Nigeria.
“We know exactly the processes involved before a project of the above magnitude are awarded to a company. We did not participate in any such process, either alone or together with any other company, with regard to the contracts. As an indigenous company, we have a stake in the economic well-being of the country.
While we appreciate the continued patronage of the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing over the years, we cannot accept ownership of contracts we knew nothing about as that would amount to fraud on our part.
“Accordingly, we hereby disassociate our company completely from the above mentioned road construction contracts,’’ the company maintained.