LOCAL contractors, on Monday, protested the non payment of debts for projects executed in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government for three to 12 years.
The contractors, who stormed the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning on Monday, protested the delay of the ministry in paying them.
They alleged that despite the fact that billions of naira had been approved and released by the Presidency to settle the liabilities, the Minister of Finance Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, had refused to settle the indebtedness.
The Publicity Secretary of the Local Contractors of Nigeria, Dandy Rowland, told THE POINT that over 5,000 Local Contractors across the nation were passing through severe life threatening situations and hunger, while some had passed on as a result of the delay to pay them.
He added that government needed to release the payment to enable these contractors to liquidated their debts.
He added, “We are, once again, calling on the Presidency to mandate the Minister Of Finance to Pay Local Contractors now or else we will remain in this protest and hunger strike before the eyes of the globe.
“The Federal Government did not waste time to commission the projects we executed with borrowed money as its achievements, but now, it is taking government decades to do verification for our payment. Federal Government cannot fool us forever.
“Therefore FG must pay us now, because if the reverse had been the case, if we had collected government money without executing the projects, government would have arrested and jailed us. This is Corruption of the highest order and it is unacceptable.”
He noted that due to the delay, many local contractors had died, while others had been hospitalised and could not afford medical bills.
Rowland said, “Our children have dropped out of school. Many among us are facing criminal charges in various courts across the nation for funds borrowed and unable to pay back. Some have fled their homes for fear of being attacked by creditors and some have lost their homes to banks and creditors.
“The Presidency inaugurated Presidential Initiative on Continued Audit in the Federal Ministry of Finance to verify the contracts we executed over the years and PICA has since verified these contracts over and over again and recommended for the settlement of the local contractors in batches, beginning with N10m downwards in order to cover a wide range of the local contractors, based on the available fund.
“Yet, Madam Finance Minister is still talking of verification every now and then, in order to manipulate the payment against PlCA’s recommendation.
“The Minister of Finance, through her Special Adviser Media, told us that N18bn had been released to pay us, and announced to the whole world on 8th July 2020 that the Finance Ministry would pay local contractors between seven to 14 days from the date of the announcement.
“This empty deceptive and unfulfilled promise heightened our pressure from our creditors after the expiration of the stipulated period, yet the game continued.”
He alleged that the fund being spent on the verification exercises was almost higher than the amount owed the local contractors put together.
Rowland said that these local contractors borrowed money from banks with interest and executed these contracts.
