Editor’s Choice National library project rises from N8bn to N38bn
Cost of the National Library project rose from N8.5 billion to N38.7 billion in 10 years, Daily Trust investigation has revealed.
The project was awarded in 2006 to Messrs Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) at the sum of N8.590 billion to be completed in 22 months.
RCC was the preferred bidder and it got the contract four years after the bid opening in 2002 without revalidation of prices.
The company commenced work in April 2006 after obtaining an APG in sum of N1.718 billion from International Bank to secure the 20% payment.
The project however suffered setbacks due to the inability of the government to release enough monies for its completion leading to its being revised three times over the period.
The project could not be completed as envisaged in February 2008 when the contract period expired. The contractor stopped work and demanded for an upward review of the contract sum, one of the building engineers in charge said.
The ministry of education, based on recommendation of the consultants, approved another redesign of the specialist work on the project in 2009 to incorporate new technology.
The Federal Ministry of Works was then involved in the project and together with the Ministry of Education; the NLN and the consultants reviewed the project
and scaled it down from eight to five floors.
The contract sum of the reduced scope was reviewed upward to N17 billion from the original sum of N8.590 billion.
The Bureau of Public Procurement issued a compliance certificate of ‘no objection’ on the review and the Federal Executive Council approved the revised sum.
The completion period for the revised project was made 21 months effective from July 2010.
The project could not be completed again due to paucity of funds.
Project back to full scope
In 2012, the presidency requested for the return of the project back to full scope. A presidential anticipatory letter with reference number NLO/C.62/VI/66 was sent to NLN dated October 11, 2012 with directive to OIA to instruct the contractor to revert to full scope.
By then, the contractor was about concluding arrangement for roofing at fifth floor.
The initial reviewed sum of N23, 153 billion for the full scope was submitted by the consultants to the Ministry of Education but it was never processed.
In February 2013, the contractor requested for the extension of time and reviewed the contract sum upward to N48 billion.
On March 26, 2014 the FCT department of building was involved in the project following a presidential directive.
An ad-hoc committee consisting of all stakeholders was set up to resolve all pending issues.
The committee recommended N38.764 billion as the revised cost with 30 months completion period.
The recommendation is expected to be forwarded to the presidency by the ministry for approval.
An official of NLN said the project was 44 % completed and the “total payment made to date was N11.574 billion inclusive of advance payment made to the contractor in the sum of N3.4 billion.
To date the project consultants have been paid a total fee of N631.735 million, said a source.
The source said government was to blame for the non completion of the project because it hadn’t made adequate payment for it.
Documents obtained by Daily Trust on the contract showed the following yearly budgetary allocation and money released:
*2008, N2, 269,197,198.00 appropriated N1, 217,401,308.05 was released.
*2009, N2.4 billion budgeted and N2, 367,968,402.14 released.
*2010, N1.8 billion budgeted N708, 301,501.34 and released.
*2011, N758, 549,771.00 was earmarked but N491, 230,136.70 was released.
*2012, N2 billion budgeted and N1,081,448,443.00 was released.
*2013, N4 billion was budgeted and N3, 164,726,518.19 was released.
*2014, N2.2 billion was budgeted and N555, 697,923.52 was released.
*2015, N1.4 billion was budgeted, but N7 million was released.
The contractor had stopped major work at the site because no allocation was made in the 2016 budget.
An educationalist and the secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (FCT) in FCT, Bawa Bello said the national library play an important role in strengthening reading habit as well as preserving publications for future references.
Also a former national librarian, Malam Habib Jato said it provided access to international bibliographic databases and maintain international standards in cataloguing. He said national libraries are situated in large buildings that are extended every so often to be able to contain millions of collections.
It administers a legal deposit system, which is entrenched in legislation.
The scope of work
The building was designed by Messrs Odeleye International Associates (OIA) in 1981 both as national monument and headquarters of NLN.
The project was located on Plot 35 along the cultural spine of the Central Business District near Roads B6, B8, NS9 and NS11.
It is situated between the National Mosque, the Cultural Centre and the Millennium Tower.
One of the building engineers in charge of the project said the project was a massive building consisting of a central core and four arms in the shape of four cardinal points.
The structure, he said, comprised of two basement floors, a ground floor and eight upper floors.
The two basement floors were to house the underground car parks, book stores, locker rooms, bindery, printing press, restaurant, clinic, crèches, changing rooms and public conveniences.
The ground floor and the eight upper floors in the design were to house the exhibition hall, the auditorium, the cataloguing, general reference areas, legal deposit, offices for administration (headquarters and branch service operation and those of members of the NLN board), book stacks, reading areas electronic data processing centre, library research and training center, restaurant and staff canteen, horizontal and vertical communication.
It has a total of ten passenger lifts, eight hoists, a conveyor belt, seven ramps, eight staircases and four cleaning cradles for cleaning 78,000sqm original floor area and external facades.