The Works Minister, Senator Dave Umahi, gave an explanation over the weekend for Why Hitech Construction Company Ltd. was chosen to complete the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project.
He made this revelation while on his inspection trip of the Lagos highway project.
According to him, “some people claim that there was no competitive bidding.”
He said that the law permits three different forms of procurement.
Umahi identified the three categories as open bidding, selective/competitive bidding, and restrictive procurement.
When we first started this project, we requested businesses with a maximum of five wired concrete pavers.
As you will agree, concrete pavers were not as widespread in Nigeria as they are now before we got started.
“Hitech is the company we needed to find because they have experience with this type of project.”
Hitech rebuilt the Oworonshoki-Apapa Road, he said.
We contacted them on Section 1 after observing that they had it correct.
After that, we employed limited bidding, which we forwarded to the Federal Executive Council and the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP). They reviewed it, made the necessary corrections, and approved it as appropriate.
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“Other companies began bringing in concrete equipment after they noticed that the Ministry of Works was insisting that we use concrete, particularly in areas with high water tables,” he said.
According to Umahi, the Federal Government chose a few companies and held a selective bidding process for Section 2 of the project.
The bidding was won by Hitech, he said.
The minister claimed that the same thing occurred in Sections 3A and 3B.
“Neither the Procurement Act nor the law have been broken by us.”
President Bola Tinubu did not suggest any business for the highway project, he emphasized.
“I want to clarify that it is free of corruption. “It’s really clear,” he continued.
