Stanley Uzoaru, Owerri
Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) has raised the alarm over terrible condition of the Imo Airport runway, just as it called for an urgent attention to have it repaired.
The Door, Policy and Standard of the commission Mr Alex Elikwu, raised the alarm when he led a team from the commission and Ministry of Aviation to inspect the phase two and three of the ongoing expansion of the airport’s apron project.
He observed that the runway is full of portholes which he said has made it fall short of internationally-acepted standard.
On the expansion of the apron, Elikwu said he was not satisfied with the level of work done considering the amount of money released for the contract.
“We are not satisfied with what we are seeing here today, it falls short of our expectations because out of the N 677million contract sun, a total of N 560million has been released to the contractor which constitutes 82 Per cent of the total sum.
He said the quality of the job done so far also falls short of standard.
He also raised worry over the contractor’s absence during the inspection after he was duly informed by the airport manager of their visit.
“We want the Ministry of Aviation to ensure that the contractor justifies the money given to him by the Federal Government.
“His absence will create a lacuna in our inspection because we need to ask him some technical questions and get direct answer from him but right now that he is not here with us, we will do our report and make recommendations to government,” Elikwu said.
The Airport Manager Rejoice Ndudinachi said the apron expansion was an abandoned project when she took over management of the airport.
“This project was abandoned when I came in but I insisted that the contractor must come back to site due to flight increase operation in the airport.
“I don’t supervise the contractor directly but the Ministry of Aviation: I also informed him that an inspection team from the presidency will visit the site so I don’t know why he is not here”, she said.
She also appealed to government to help connect the airport to the national greed adding that since she came in, she had been running the airport with generated power.