Sir Udensi Carpets Abia Govt Over Lack Of Transparency In Contract Awards, Says N6bn For Faulks Road Too High

A stalwart of APGA in Abia State, Sir Chikwe Udensi has condemned what he described as lack of transparency in the award by the PDP led government in the state, saying it gives room for suspicion.

According to Sir Udensi, Interpol Systems Consultant the award of about 4 kilometre Faulks Road in Aba, commercial capital of the state at the cost of N6bn is on the high side.

He spoke on a radio programme Open Parliament on Family Love FM Umuahia streamed live on ABN TV and Radio on Wednesday.

While expressing concern over the development, he faulted the due diligence and costing process applied by the state government in award of contracts.

He also said a reliable source at the Ministry of Works in the state informed him that they as officials of the ministry are not aware of contracts being awarded, the process and when they are awarded to contractors, insisting that they have no input in it.

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“N6bn for Faulks Road is completely out of the way especially when the recognised benchmark for highways is N218m or N220m per kilometre. How can we now spend that kind of money for less than 4 kilometres. It is unfortunate.

“My higher understanding of what the problem of Abia is is not just about the higher cost of the construction but the quality of work done is very substandard”, he said.

The governorship aspirant said his investigations from notable construction firms in the country indicate that the cost being bandied by the state government for the award of Osisioma flyover at the cost of N4.4bn is outrageous.

He said his due diligence shows that the cost of the flyover ought to be about N850m to N900m for the construction, raising concern about the quality of asphalting of Faulks Road and other projects in the state.