Assessing impact of FG’s road construction guidelines on projects, professionals

As the government moves to implement new guidelines on road contracts, experts say there is a need for proper enforcement to reap the gains and make the roads durable and safer for Nigerians, VICTOR GBONEGUN reports.

Experts have advised the Federal Government to strengthen and prioritise engineering aspects of road projects alongside the new guidelines to guarantee the expected end of achieving lasting roads and saving costs.

They observed that if the government is sincere about the desire to cut down on construction costs, it needs to halt corruption in contract awards and use professional consultants in projects rather than making it in-house jobs.

According to them, the non-usage of professional consultants in projects is a clog in achieving better road construction. Nigerian roads have over the years been challenged by recurring failures traced to poor supervision, design and construction.

There is also a lack of diligent geotechnical studies, old age, inadequate maintenance, lack of drainage, poor and substandard materials. Many of the roads don’t last beyond one to five years before deterioration, leading to accidents and loss of lives.

The Guardian gathered that out of the 200,000 kilometres of roads in the country, 34,000 kilometres belong to the Federal Government as federal highways. The rest belongs to the states and local councils.

Findings show that less than 27 per cent of federal roads are reported to be in good condition. The economy is estimated to lose about N175 billion yearly due to the reduced life span of road assets.

In its quest to remedy the situation, the Federal Ministry of Works recently released new guidelines for road construction in the country. The policies include the removal of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from all contracts, thereby giving the government value for money spent on the projects, and the introduction of uniform pricing in each zone of the country to ensure fair rates are utilised for the procurement of projects.

Under the guidelines, all ongoing projects require all field staff to be on-site to enhance supervision. It includes the introduction of ‘whistle-blowing’ on bad jobs by engaging stakeholders such as communities where the projects traverse, road users to monitor works executed and report where poor quality works are being executed.

Others are the introduction of rigid pavements as against the flexible pavement (bituminous), where appropriate, especially where there are high water levels and poor soil structure, reduction of the claims for Variation of Price (VOP) by contractors, which has, consequently, saved government money and reduced the incessant request for augmentation of project contracts.

The government will be engaging in priority projects within economic corridors whose early completion will spur economic growth; engaging in the completion of one carriageway before commencing the second carriageway for dualised projects and sending regional directors/special projects directors to the fields/sites to supervise project execution, as well as ensure quality and timely project completion.

The guidelines include engaging with the Ministry of Steel Development for the revitalisation of the Light Section Mill of the Ajaokuta Steel Company to produce seven million tonnes of iron rods for the construction of concrete; review, redesign, and re-scoping of critical projects that required immediate attention and funding.

The guidelines also include the effective design of road infrastructure anchored on a detailed report of environmental site conditions-Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) and geotechnical report.

It also includes the establishment of the Renewed Hoped Infrastructure Development Fund to improve funding for critical highway projects and the commencement of the second phase of the Highway Development Management Initiative, which will allow the financing, construction and management of some federal roads under the public-private partnership scheme.

According to the Minister of Works, David Umahi, the new policies are aimed at transforming road construction in the country, designed to address the poor pace of work and improve the service life of federal roads.

However, the development has triggered mixed feelings from operatives in the road construction sector, who observed that some of the guidelines are not well thought out given the varied uniqueness of project zones in the country.

They said there will also be a need to deploy professional consultant engineers if some of the highlighted guidelines are to become successful.

The Chief Executive Officer, Ove Arup & Partners Nigeria Limited, Mr Kunle Adebajo, said the introduction of a whistleblowing policy is not a bad idea in the road construction sector but needs to be done carefully and professionally.

Specifically, he said it must be done anonymously, not based on sentiment, and an atmosphere where people are not afraid to speak out must be provided, while measures must be put in place toward ensuring that the process is not abused by Nigerians.

Adebajo said: “We need to move away from the regime, where people simply complain without taking an active role. It will be late when something is erroneously done and the road fails. There must be proper involvement of all and sundry so that we get the best.

“However, we must be careful because we’re involving people who don’t understand the technical aspect of road construction. Once a whistle is blown, it casts aspersions on the quality of work.”

On the impact on the road construction sector, he said, such measures might not make much impact because they can’t fit as a replacement for sound engineering consultancy, saying, “people who feel there is no need for good engineers to supervise projects rather prefers whistleblowing may be shocked that it won’t work.”

“We need to strengthen the engineering aspect of road construction in terms of consultants deployed. Most frequently, ministry officials supervise projects, but the truth is that it is better to use consulting engineers who have integrity, motivated to ensure that construction is done properly because they have a name, reputation and their professional indemnity is at stake,” he said.

Adebajo is not optimistic about the workability of uniform pricing for road contracts in each zone of the country, warning that every project has varied parameters and circumstances.

He emphasised the need to have professionals on the projects, which can use the comparative rate to adjudicate.

He said: “Most projects sometimes have a varied condition, that is what the consultant will verify and use. It is not a guarantee that once you are in a zone, the price must be the same. It should be useful as a guideline and handled by a professional consultant. You cannot force the same price in one location to another if there are significant differences.”

A past president of the Nigerian Institution of Structural Engineers (NIStrustE), Dr Victor Oyenuga, said there is no totally bad policy. However, he said it is a matter of implementation, noting that there are enough policy guidelines for construction in the country.

For instance, on the ‘whistleblowing’, he asked, will the life of the person who is blowing the whistle on bad construction be saved and protected from being killed?

“It is the ability of us to be sincere with ourselves and be sincere in whatever we do that matters most. If the individual can be protected, that will assist,” he said.

On the uniform pricing, he explained that it may be a reasonable guideline policy for construction. “Like most construction materials such as granite and others, they are equally distributed within a particular zone. Where you don’t have, they are far away.

“For instance, in Eastern Nigeria, we don’t have much granite so it may be reasonable because you find out that the availability of those materials is more or less the same. It is either they are there or the materials are imported into that zone. If they’re imported, then, we expect that the pricing will be the same. If they are available, we also expect the same pricing,” Oyenuga said.

He recalled that such policy was introduced in 2004 but implemented in 2006 on the sinking of about 3,000 boreholes, across the country, whereby the same bill of quantities was adopted and it worked, except where people raised a major issue like those in North East, who have to go about 600 metres deep down to get water.

Former Chairman, Lagos chapter, Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, Mr Jide Oke, said when CPI is factored into contracts, it is done to take care of movement in price because of inflationary trends, noting that it is like a fluctuation clause in contracts.

He explained that there can be fluctuation clauses in a project particularly if the project is not a fixed term contract.

Oke said to effectively implement the proposed removal of CPI, the government must be ready to pay contractors advance payment to procure materials because there are some materials for projects that are imported.

“There are fluctuation-based projects that are fixed. If there are government policies that are enunciated within the period that drastically affect the project, the contractor has the right to put in claims.

“So, what happens, especially with the way the foreign exchange has been unstable in the last one year? Now $1 to naira is about N1, 500 and what happens if the dollar to naira becomes N1,800 tomorrow,” he said.

According to him, in a situation where advance payments are not provided to contractors, it will be tough
for them.

“The policies like removal of fuel subsidies and floating of the naira implemented by the government since May 2023 dealt a big blow to most of the projects in naira. So, if policies change in the life of a project, the contractor is eligible to put in for fluctuations, which is a standard rule.

“But if you don’t want to use the CPI and the only way to fix it is by advance funds to procure materials ahead of time. Some of our policies are well-intentioned but the implementation must be worked out so that it will not backfire and have adverse effects on projects.

“If you want a contractor to deliver quality jobs, you must also be mindful of how policies are enunciated. Government must sit down and weigh the pros and cons of its policies,” he added.

Specifically, Oke noted that policies like ‘whistle-blowing’ on poor jobs will be a good one as some contractors deliver shoddy jobs that often cause hardships for commuters.

“It is good if host communities, beneficiaries of projects and other stakeholders have the right to do whistleblowing on contractors. But to be effective, the government must be open and transparent in the awards of projects. People must know the scope and when projects are awarded to contractors to be able to do whistle-blowing,” he added.