Kaduna govt accuses El-Rufai administration of contract fraud, debts burden

Kaduna State commissioner of public works and infrastructure, Ibrahim Hamza, has accused the immediate past governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, of contract scams and huge debt liabilities.

Mr Hamza lamented that the urban renewal programme of the previous administration was enmeshed with serious issues, which included huge liabilities to the ministry.

The commissioner argued that some contractors received payments that are enough to finish the project, but they have not finished the project and they were bringing claims that are outrageous.

Mr Hamza made the allegations at the quarterly ministerial press briefing at Sir Kashim Ibrahim on Wednesday.

According to him, the administration of Governor Uba Sani inherited liabilities of unpaid contractors, over-invoicing and lack of documentation in road construction, as well as low capacity utilisation in the water sector.

He said the current government had to think outside the box to save the state from the crisis.

He also disclosed that the current administration has initiated over 78 road projects, out of which 21 have been completed.

“Since the coming of this administration in the last 22 months, the government of Senator Uba Sani has done remarkably well.

“We have tried, notwithstanding the bedevilling challenges and obstacles that we encountered in the ministry itself and all the parastatals.

“We have largely overcome almost all the challenges that we met. These challenges are not limited to liabilities inherited, vandalisation, and lack of proper documentation. Contracts were awarded without documentation. Somewhere over-inflated, and there were no records,” he said.

“So, we had to just sit down, think outside the box, and see how we can remedy all these things.

“So, we are battling between the challenge of remedying the wrongs that were created in the past and making progress. But thank God, everything is going well,’’ he said.

According to him, 21 of these roads “have already been completed and have been put into use, thereby creating more economic activities across the 23 local governments”.

“Last week, we also launched the completion of the Kaduna Bridge from Kabala Costain to Aliyu Makama Road, which will decongest traffic on the major road artery of Ahmadu Bello Way-Junction Road,’’ he added.

According to him, some of the claims can finance the construction of new road projects after the contractors have been paid previously for the amount of work done.

“So, we had to sit down and see how we can go through these challenges and make sure that we settle in peace so that we can make progress. This is part of the reason why we didn’t jump directly to continue such projects,’’ he added.

He disclosed that Mr Sani’s administration met capacity utilisation of the water supply scheme at less than 5%, but has now risen to 30%, and by the end of the year, it will reach 100%.

He recalled that a lot has been done or invested in the water sector by the previous administration but unfortunately, the result is not commensurate with what has been invested.

“Some money was also borrowed from the Islamic Development Bank to the tune of about $81 million. Another loan was collected again to the tune of $101 million for distribution from the African Development Bank.

“There was also another reform by the federal government in the tune of $17.2 billion,’’ he disclosed.

According to him, Mr Sani declared a state of emergency in the water sector because of the challenges bedevilling it and that effort has tremendously improved water supply in Kaduna State.

Mr Hamza disclosed that this administration paid all the salary arrears of the Kaduna Water Corporation staff, amounting to N800 million, and settled the outstanding electricity bill of N1.3 billion.

“By the end of last year, between when the state of emergency was declared in the water sector, sometimes in September, to December last year, 2024, the state government injected over $25 billion,’’ he disclosed.

“This year, we are reaching and spending over 100 billion naira injecting in the water sector here. And by December, we are hopeful, which is the fourth quarter; we are going to have 100% water supply, which is within the capacity, our efficiency of all our plants,” he promised.