Working with the Cross River Basin Development Authority (CRBDA) started off as a promising business endeavour for Ikpi Eteng, the Managing Director of Eliminata Enterprises.

Eteng’s company, which specialised in pest control, weed control and decontamination, started providing services to the agency in 2020 after a successful capacity evaluation process.

But things took a negative turn in June 2021, when Eliminata was contracted for another job at the agency’s facility in Ikot Nakanda, Akpabuyo Local Government Area.

Nyang Umana, the personal assistant to CRBDA’s managing director, had contacted Eliminata to cement the terms of a decontamination contract.

The job, valued at N700,000, was supposed to be straightforward: supply the necessary materials, complete the work, and receive payment afterward. Or so Ikpi thought. But it has been three years since Eliminata completed the job with no payment to show for it.

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“Usually, we get all the materials, get the job done and then get paid afterwards. At least, that was how our previous encounters have gone. However, three years after the job at Ikot Nakanda, my company is yet to be paid. We’ve tried different attempts for dialogue to get our money,” Eteng told EQ.

Considering the antecedent of a successful partnership, Eliminata attempted dialogue as one means to recover its money. Eteng and his wife — who is also a company executive — had several conversations with Bassey Nkposong, the CRBDA’s managing director, and his assistant.

It was in one of those conversations that Eteng learnt the reason for his company’s predicament. It was the same conversation that gave him the faintest glimmer of hope of getting a refund. But that hope was short-lived.

“In 2022, after a lot of back and forth, Mr. Nkposong told me that our payment had mistakenly been made to another contractor who was handling a different job at the same facility,” Eteng recalled.

“We demanded we have the contractor’s contact to see if we could get our payment. The MD said that may not be possible. But he promised that he was going to award my company another contract and then incorporate the N700,000 into our payment. We agreed on that.”

Eteng, believing that he would finally get his money, took up the new N1 million contract and completed it in November 2022. After completing the work, only the N1 million was paid, leaving the outstanding N700,000 debt unresolved.

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There was an extra layer of complexity to Eteng’s situation: there was no paperwork for the contract he was owed for, in his possession. Due to the trust he had built with the agency from previous engagements and the involvement of his wife, he took the contract without bothering with the technical details of a written agreement.

“Yes, I had worked for them and delivered. Unfortunately, I don’t have a document to prove it. The conversation on the contract happened on WhatsApp with Nyang Umana, but the phone that has the chat is missing. The conversation about incorporating the money into a new contract happened physically with Mr. Nkposong,” Eteng explained.

Conversation between the MD CRBDA nicknamed Ufan and Contractor

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Eteng told EQ that he had relied on the integrity of the CRBDA, the managing director and Nkposong’s personal assistant to honour their commitments and pay him. Curiously, the repercussions of the non-payment have been major on Elimanata’s finances.

“The major implication was that I had to pay my staff. After onboarding them and not getting paid, I had to source money from other places to make the payment,” Eteng lamented.

“The materials I used were from my suppliers… because of the non-payment, I had to find money from other sources to pay these people too. It’s been a heavy financial burden.”

EQ called and wrote to Bassey Nkepeyong, the agency’s managing director, and his assistant on Tuesday and Wednesday. EQ also formally wrote to the CRBDA on the same day.

None of these parties had responded as of press time.
The post Cross River Basin Development Authority Won’t Pay Contractor 3 Years After appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.