Julius Berger clarifies award of 2nd Niger Bridge, two other contracts

Julius Berger Nigeria Plc has explained how the federal government of Nigeria awarded 2nd Niger Bridge, Abuja-Kano Road and Lagos-Shagamu Expressway contract to the company.

The Managing Director of the company, Dr Lars Richter, who made the clarification on Thursday at the National Assembly Abuja during a hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Works investigating what the Chairman of the Committee, Honourable Abubakar Kabir Abubakar said the award of the three contracts followed due process.

Responding to enquiry into what procurement process Julius Berger went through for the award of the contracts for the projects; the cost each of the projects were awarded for, and completion periods at which the projects were contracted to be delivered by Chairman of the House Works Committee, Honourable Abubakar Kabir Abubakar, Engr. Dr Lars Richter said: “We are an engineering contracting the 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”, he explained further.

Also, a member of the Committee, Honourable Kaojewhile acknowledging that Julius Berger is a renown engineering construction contractor in Nigeria, had said the House of Representatives for which the Works Committee acts at the public hearing has legislative, appropriative as well as oversight functions over the prudent and successful execution of capital projects in the country. This, he said, is the basis for the public hearing on the projects at issue.Another member of the Committee, Honourable Johnson from Lagos State was also interested in the commencement and expected dates of completion and delivery for the three projects.
Dr Richter’s, however, confident assurance that in all the projects, Julius Berger was, technically speaking, working assiduously within the schedules of panned works, and even working ahead of time in certain scheduled works.

The Julius Berger MD was by a motion carried by the Committee put on oath before he spoke at the hearing, and by another motion moved by the Deputy Chairman of the Committee, Julius Berger was asked to go back and put forward to the Committee a formally signed presentation to the Committee on the three projects, the subject matter of the hearing.