A bridge fixed by the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), at the price of N22.3 million in a community at Enugu State tears off one month after its repair.
The Federal Government had last year allocated the sum of N22, 339,550 to FERMA, an agency saddled with the mandate for monitoring and maintaining all Federal roads in Nigeria, to fix a bridge at Amangwu Oboffia Ataavu community in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State.
A bridge FERMA says it has fixed and delivered to the community on the month of March this year while it has since begun to wear off.
Tracka, a public accountability organization that visited the bridge, says it has been repaired by FERMA and delivered for community use.
However, pictures of the bridge published by Tracka show that it has since begun to tear off few months after its maintenance work was completed.
The contract supervised and implemented by FERMA was awarded to Messrs Chez Aviv Nigeria Limited.
Worse still, despite the huge amount of money spent in fixing the bridge by FERMA, it has since started wearing off in a clear example of substandard projects that are been executed and delivered to communities across Nigeria.
A community resident who uses the bridge and does not want his identity revealed while speaking to MAWA FOUNDATION from Enugu, said FERMA did not repair the bridge but rather painted and claimed it has been fixed.
He has, however, called on the anti-graft agencies to investigate FERMA and the contractor, pointing out that apart from painting the bridge, no maintenance work was carried out.
FERMA is not the only offender, often, government officials connive with crony contractors to divert monies meant for projects while allowing the delivery of substandard jobs, a practice that has helped undermine the country’s ability to deliver quality infrastructure to the people.
MAWA FOUNDATION could not immediately reach out to FERMA for a response.