NDDC Contract: Company Denies Link With Pa Clark

The board and management of Genuine Construction and Engineering Company Limited which was purportedly fronted by elderstatesman Pa Edwin Clark in obtaining contracts from the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC has denied the allegations against the elder-statesman.

The company in a statement made available to  GreenWhiteGreen GWG affirmed that Pa Edwin Clark has no relationship with the company even as it also denied claims that it had been paid 90% of its multibillion naira shoreline protection contract.

The company in the statement said:

The attention of the Board and Management of Genuine Construction and Engineering Company Ltd, has been drawn to a publication in Vanguard Newspaper of Monday, September 6th, 2021, which has also been trending on Social Media, linking our highly respected father, Chief Edwin K. Clark to our Company and an on-going project in Nembe, Bayelsa State.     

For the records and the avoidance of doubts, we wish to state categorically that Pa E.K. Clark has no relationship whatsoever with our Company. We do not wish to belabour this fact as the particulars of Shareholders and Directors as published clearly buttresses that fact.

Having said that, we also wish to address the other issue of alleged receipt of 90% payment of Contract value and non-performance leveled against the Contractor.

Even though we recognize that it may be unethical for a Corporate entity like ours to be discussing official transactions in this manner, we hasten to say that we feel obliged to do so, in order to clear doubts and any negative impression the said publication may have created in the minds of those who do not know the true state of affairs as regards the project.

We wish to clarify the true situation of things concerning the Shore Protection Contract at Ogbolomabiri (Nembe) to be as follows;

1. It is simply not true that 90% of the Contract sum has been paid to our Company because we have never presented such bills to the NDDC. We have so far received only 15% of the total value as Mobilization fee. Thereafter, upon completion of the first milestone, we submitted the 1st Interim Payment Certificate IPC, for payment. However, it is necessary to note that 35% of the value of the Mobilization Fee was amortized (deducted) from the 1st and so far only IPC we have raised and for which payment was received, which in itself is only 15% of total Contract sum and not 90% as is being bandied about.

As a Company, we cherish accountability and transparency as one of the Cornerstones of our Corporate culture. Those familiar with the NDDC’s payment procedures would confirm that it is not  possible for 90% payment to be made to our Company after submitting one IPC that is only 15% of the project value so far.

2. We in Genuine Construction and Engineering Company Ltd as our name implies, are not only genuine but have a long standing reputation for quality work delivered in a timely fashion. We are never known for abandoning our projects midway, except for situations where we had no choice than to withdraw from site based on extraneous factors outside our control.

3. The project at issue, the Ogbolomabiri (Nembe) Shore Protection project, was awarded to our Company in November of 2009.

However, we eventually mobilized to Site after receiving the 15% Mobilization Fee and then casting and curing sufficient Concrete Piles to undertake the job.

4. Once on Site, we continued working without any lost man-hours until March 2014 when work had to be suspended following protests from the Community on the alignment of the Sheet Piles as approved by the NDDC. But even then, we remained on Site incurring losses till November of 2014, when we had to withdraw our men and equipment from Site to save further loss and degradation of equipment following the non-resolution of the issues between the Community and NDDC. 

5. It is perhaps pertinent to state at this juncture that the new alignment as demanded by the Community required major changes such as the inclusion of a Ring Road around the Community as part of the Shore Protection Contract which obviously required fresh approval of the NDDC Management.

6. At that point in time, having struck valuable working relationship with the Community, and knowing that the Commission is also desirous of executing the project, we continued to interface with succeeding managements of the NDDC over the years, through correspondences and physical meetings.

7. It was only as recent as May of this year 2021, that a new set of Drawings as well as Bill of Engineering Measurements and Evaluation (BEME), which have taken into account the issues raised by the Community, were finally approved and issued to our Company.

8. Unfortunately, it is still not yet “uhuru” for the project as we continue to look forward to the inclusion of this project which is critical to the geographical intergrity of the Nembe (Ogbolomabiri) Community, in the Commission’s budget to enable the NDDC provide funding for it.

9. Meanwhile, even in spite of the current state of budgetary uncertainty, we in Genuine Construction and Engineering Company Ltd, as a sign of goodwill and our readiness to resume work even at short notice, have gone ahead to conduct Sand Search in advance, to ascertain the availability of adequate quantities of Sand which is a requirement in the new design of the project at our own expense.

CONCLUSION

In summary  therefore, we want to state categorically once again, that Genuine Construction and Engineering Company Ltd. has not received 90% payment for the Ogbolomabiri (Nembe) Shore Protection project. Furthermore, we did not abandon the project but was rather forced to demobilize from Site based on protests from the Community about expanding the scope of the project which required the NDDC’s intervention and resolution. That has now been resolved and new drawings have been approved and  issued to us in May 2021, of which we have already taken some pro-active steps as our own sign of Corporate Goodwill.

Our main constraints now is clear payment guarantees which can only be effected through provision in the Commission’s budget for the project in its new scope.

Finally, we wish to reassure the good people of Nembe, other interested parties as well as the NDDC of our capacity and desire to see this important project to completion, whenever the remaining outstanding issues are sorted out. Thank you.

Signed:

Engr. Edward Orupabo

GM, Genuine Construction & Engineering Company Ltd.

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