Gusau Cargo Airport: Zamfara govt rejects Matawalle’s fresh claim

Zamfara State government has again countered the immediate past administration in the State led by Bello Matawalle, now the Minister of State for Defence, concerning the Gusau International Cargo Airport project.

According to reports, Matawalle last Friday, denied the allegations of embezzling billions from the Zamfara cargo airport project.

But in a statement issued in Gusau, the spokesperson to Zamfara Governor, Sulaiman Bala Idris, said that the response by Matawalle exposed a blatant violation of trust.

According to him, “the tragic financial situation the current administration met in Zamfara State is manifestly a product of the past government of Bello Matawalle, who, through a mere telephone call, directed the Ministry of Local Government in complete disregard of any due process to remove 1,000,000,000 billion Naira from the Local Government Joint Account on October 25th, 2021, and paid 825,000,000 million Naira to the contractors without any valuation.”

The statement read in parts: “The Zamfara State Government would ordinarily not respond to an accused embezzler. However, as a responsible government, we feel compelled to provide the facts following his denial of the alleged embezzlement.

“It is doubtful that the project’s cost was reduced from 28 billion Naira to 11 billion Naira in round figures. No reputable bidder would agree to a drastic reduction of 61% in cost without a corresponding reduction in the scope of work. This raises questions about the integrity of the bidding process. Matawalle is seemingly trying to cast doubt on the credibility of the contractor.

“Matawalle has claimed that the Airport Project was financed through what he called ‘contract financing’; the former Governor should have asked before embarrassing himself. It is known as the ‘Contract Financing Facility, CFF, which happens between the bank and the contractor.

“The government isn’t involved at all. All available documents indicate that the contractors were paid using funds from the state government and not through the Contract Financing Facility, CFF.

“We must emphasise that the claim that payments were made to the contractor solely based on certificates issued by the supervising ministry or agency is false. Our records clearly show that the three payments made to the contractor were not based on an accurate assessment of the work done and certified by the supervising ministry.

“For the record, an initial advance payment was made to the contractors representing 30% of the total contract in the sum of N3,465,569,736.90 without the approval of the designs and bills of quantities of the project by relevant government departments on the 19th of June, 2020, almost eleven months after the award; throughout the period, nothing was done to certify the drawings, bills and secure necessary approvals of relevant airport regulatory authorities.

“Only a few days after the initial payment, the government came up with new terminology in contract ‘corruption management’ and approved what it called ‘loan’ to the contractors in the sum of N2,310,379,824.60.

“This payment was referred to as a loan to the contractors when very little work had been done on-site. The relevant government institutions did not certify the payment, weren’t correctly vouched and were therefore irregular in the government’s finance management.

“Furthermore, a dual carriageway from the roundabout to the airport, drainage and gate has not been completed, contrary to the claim by Matawalle’s response. Also, the link road from the main road to the airport roundabout was an additional work the contractor verbally and arbitrarily directed to execute. The Matawalle administration did not regularise this.

“The claim that the runway, taxi, Apron, terminal building, ‘water pool’ water reservoir, boreholes, cargo hall and fire service buildings are between 50-100% completion is laughable. Matawalle should know that percentage progress is computed based on work done and subsisting contract drawings and bills of quantities and no other. A cursory look at the subsisting contract documents and site visits would reveal the lies and deception in the claims.

“Available records show that Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, and Nigeria Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, were only involved in the project after it had already begun, which goes against the standard practice in the aviation industry. Usually, they must be involved in all project stages, including planning, design, and implementation.

“Matawalle’s claim that the project was 50-100% completed, while in another paragraph, it was reported as 30% completed, equivalent to 3.47 billion Naira, raises the question of why the contractor was paid the sum of 6.78 billion Naira if the project was only 30% completed.

“It is essential to remind the former Governor that the contractor and the supervising Ministry measured all on-site works together during his administration. The measurements were taken during the execution of the project, and the records are available. Therefore, the total value of the work done to date, 2.25 billion Naira (19.47%), was based on these measurements.”