By Daniel Tyokua
The chairman Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Hon. Christopher Maikalangu has disclosed that over 50 contractors are being owed by the immediate past administration.
He said despite the challenge of fund, his administration will pay all the contractors that had completed their jobs.
Maikalangu gave the assurance in a meeting with aggrieved contractors, yesterday.
The chairman, who appealed to the contractors to exercise patience, however, revealed that despite the challenge of funding, the administration has paid one month salary owed by the former chairman.
In a statement issued on Monday, by the Senior Special Assistant on Media, and Public Affairs to the chairman,
Kingsley Madaki, said the delay in payments was due to dwindling internal revenue generation and expected funds from the federal government.
The chairman said: “It will be unfair for your money to be tied down somewhere for number of years, as you all know this is a new administration. I resumed office on the 14th of June 2022, so I felt that we should invite all the contractors that are being owed by the previous administration so that we can know ourselves. You have worked for the council and you deserve your payment.
“But also I want you to have it at the back of your mind that very soon we will call you on a proper inspection of all the projects you said you have completed. We are going to focused on projects that has reached 100 percent completion.
“Let the truth be told, we may not pay all. Don’t expect us to perform magic from our end, because all the necessary findings must be done before any payment. Most of the debit are traced to 2016 to 2019. Government is a continuous we want to assure you that we will gradually pay it”
He assured; “We are making serious efforts in ensuring that we get the expected fund from the federal government, and we are also ensuring that we will up-scale our Internal Revenue Generation (IGR) to enable us offset our liabilities. I want to assure you that all our contractors will be paid soon”. He said.
While thanking the Chairman on his promise to offset the debt owed by the previous administration, Engr. Bello Shafiw, the Managing Director of Christal Love AND TINA Nigeria LTD, said the audience given by the new council Chairman was a huge step in the right direction.
“With this kind of Chairman in the leadership of the council, the residents should be rest assured that things will work well for good. We didn’t expect that you will call us or have any interest in paying a debt you didn’t acquire. Most of us have lost hope since, but with this assurance we have gotten here today our hope is revived already. Some of us are being owed for years after the completion of jobs. We have been asking and nobody answered us but thank God for the answer we have gotten from this present administration” he said.
