Umahi addresses concerns over N9.3bn payment to microfinance bank in road projects

David Umahi, the Minister of Works, has refuted a report that purports to show that he approved the payment of N9.3 billion to a microfinance bank for road development projects.

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The minister was accused by Tracka, BudgIT’s platform for promoting service delivery, of violating the 2007 procurement law by reportedly giving the Federal Ministry of Works permission to pay FIMS Microfinance Bank Ltd. a total of N9.3 billion.

But in a statement released on Saturday, the Minister’s Special Advisor on Media, Barrister Orji Uchenna Orji, called the article a “malicious” creation of the writer’s mind and pointed out that Umahi was the governor of Ebonyi State at the time the project was granted.

The disbursement of funds for 62 projects to the bank was carried out between June and December 2023, according to the statement, which also included the minister responding to the accusation while on the inspection tour to the South East.

The minister stated the ministry behaved legally because the payment was paid for services rendered by contractors rather than for the contract that the bank was granted. He also made it clear that he was in the Senate when the first payment was made in June.

“Let me also use the opportunity to debunk something ongoing in the social media,” Umahi was quoted as adding. I’m not sure what the group is called—is it Tracka or something else?

It is allegedly keeping an eye on the federal government’s budget. I also noticed that they had posted a very lovely photo of me there along with the statement that we had paid the microfinance bank 9.3 billion.

However, they proceeded to attach almost eight billion dollars to a number of projects in the states of Ekiti, Kaduna, Kastina, and Boronu, claiming that these payments were made in June. I served in the Senate in June. If these projects are true, it is why I was still a governor and not a minister at the time they were awarded.

Secondly, I was a member of the Senate in June. I served in the Senate in July. I was in the Senate until August 20th. However, there are problems when a contractor completes their work and is paid.

“Pay it to this bank, pay it to this bank,” he may say. They are therefore acting very naughtily. The only recourse they have is to inquire as to whether the work was completed.

However, they are not allowed to dictate to a contractor where he will receive payment for his work. They therefore have no right to claim that it was paid into microfinance, regardless of whether he was paid by a macrofinance bank or a microfinance bank, without influencing the fact that I am ignorant of the job details.

They have the right to go check if the jobs were completed. It makes no difference who gets paid if the jobs are completed. Thus, it serves only as a diversion. Afterwards, some of the contractors are retaliating by using them. I, however, will not be sidetracked. I was never the one to award the positions. I did not make any payments.

“They have no right to question where it was paid to, even if they were done by me,” the minister continued, “if the jobs were completed, the certificate was generated, it was deployed to the platform, money was released against the project, and it was appropriated.”