Contractors who supplied surgical, laboratory and scientific equipment for projects under the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme in the FCT have called on the territory’s minister to intervene in retrieving payments owed them since 2014.
Under the auspices of the Surgical/Medical Laboratory Allied and Scientific Equipment Dealers and Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (SMASEDMAN) the dealers blamed situations where contractors did not get paid after executing their contracts on “lapses or misappropriation of fund on the part of government officials.”
Speaking at the association’s annual general meeting in Abuja, SMASEDMAN president Nze Nwokeafor said its members “now have their property confiscated by banks where they borrowed money to execute contracts.”
Some of the contractors are in a bad state of health due to emotional stress attributed to nonpayment of their money by FCT SURE-P, noted Nwokeafor in a statement.
The association wants FCT minister Mohammed Bello to expedite action to “alleviate the sufferings of [SMASEDMAN] members by ensuring immediate payment of these overdue debts.”
The association is in particular concerned about the fate of the debts owed them after the 2015 fiscal year ends by this March.
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