The reconstruction of the expressway may not be completed until 2020 as there are alleged moves by the Federal Government to start a new concession.
The alarm was raised by a Lagos-based human rights organisation, Creative Chambers, while
reacting to a January 21 statement credited to the Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen, on January 12, 2014.
The minister said that the Federal Government was mobilising about N300 billion from private investors in a public-private partnership (PPP) for the rehabilitation of the expressway and two other major roads in the country.
Creative Chambers, a member of the 1998 NGO coalition for the 50th anniversary of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, noted in a statement that the new concession could cause a major setback for the project.
The statement noted that the PPP was costly “and the new arrangement that the ministry is embarking upon could delay the project delivery till 2020.”
The group backed its argument with facts obtained from a paper recently presented by the Director-General, Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), Emeka Ezeh, who explained that the ministry would have to follow best practices in PPP procurement, which involves open competition, public advertisement, no conflict of interest in selection process, negotiation, tender evaluation, appeals/complaints mechanism, dispute resolution, and procurement process review/audits, among other pre-requisites that would take some time to fulfill.
In the paper entitled “PPP Procurement”, which was presented recently at the fourth Africa Public Private Partnership Conference in Abuja, Ezeh also explained that whatever PPP model being considered, “the contracting and procurement process shall be subject to the provisions of the PPP Act 2007 and the nine essential steps in public procurement namely: procurement planning driven by proper needs assessment or business case; appropriation/sufficient budget cover; advertisement (open competitive bidding), transparent prequalification, bid submission, bid opening, bid evaluation-technical and Financial, Tender Board/FEC approval, and contract execution.”
According to Ezeh, the recommended PPP model shall be cleared by BPP to ensure that value for money, economy and transparency objectives have been met prior to submission to FEC for approval.
In the paper made available to The Guardian, Ezeh pointed out the causes of some PPP failures which include “insufficient risk analysis and needs assessment (business case); inability of the actors to follow the critical steps in the basic process; government does not fully understand what they are committing to; does not understand project structure or workable contract; parties are not clear on their roles and responsibilities; not enough due diligence or feasibility study; undeclared conflict of interest, and poorly structured contracts and agreements.”
While appealing to the Federal Government not to prolong the agony of Nigerians on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Creative Chambers noted that Ezeh’s observations were in tune with the submissions of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) in its 2011 yearly report that identified possible reasons that led to the failure of the concession with Bi-Courtney in 2011.
The commission noted in the report that the implementation of the project was delayed due to various issues that were not addressed by the Federal Government prior to the execution of the contract.
While exonerating Bi-Courtney of blame for the project delay, ICRC identified some of the issues as approval for the design of the road, securing the right of way, financial model and environmental and social impact assessment.
On approval for the design of the road, the report indicates that Clause 6.1 of the concession agreement identifies the concessionaire as responsible for the preparation of the preliminary design for the grantor’s review and approval.
The report says that approval for a final design was granted on May 10, 2011, two years after the concession agreement was signed.
“It is evident that the scope of work was not fully documented and outline design provided before the concession was awarded,” says the report.
The report reads in part: “Without an agreed design and scope of work based on the grantor’s performance and output standards, there cannot be an agreed fixed cost for the project.
“Without a financial model setting out the expected project costs and revenues, financing costs cannot be determined.”
According to ICRC, an environmental and social impact assessment should have been carried out because of the extent of the refurbishment work, the proposed widening and the effect that tolling was likely to have on the property and communities along the road.
The report also states that further traffic data and survey work ought to have taken place to assess the willingness and ability of the road users to pay and potential diversionary effects, adding that extended right of way ought to have been secured.
“Due to the issues identified above, the project could not raise finance from any credible investor. This made it impossible for the concessionaire to meet the conditions precedent as itemised in Article 3.3 of the concession agreement,” the report says.
The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, also raised the alarm recently on the ongoing resurfacing of the expressway as against rebuilding the road.
“We insist that the repair being carried out is not sufficient. We ask for a rebuilt road with six lanes on each of the northbound and southbound carriages between the interchange at Ojota in Lagos and the Sagamu interchange from where it should continue with four lanes on each side to Ojoo in Ibadan. Anything short of the above is a waste of time,” the group said in a statement.
GUARDIAN
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