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The People’s Voice Advocacy Network, a civil society organisation established to promote good governance and social justice, has accused the Executive Governor of Kwara State, Mallam Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of protecting some fraudulent contractors from facing the legal action of contract breach.
In a press statement signed by the group’s Assistant Publicity Secretary, Comrade Olaitan Abdulraheem, he made it known that the state government will be encouraging corruption if this fraudulent act is swept under the carpet without prosecution and adequate sanction.
“We read about the fraudulent revelations published by ENETSUD in respect of the poor project execution on Government High School Adeta which was awarded at a contract sum of ₦361million yet the Execution of the Contract was poor as a result of breach of contractual agreement. This is an act of corruption taken too far. Quite more saddening that this shameful act is happening at a period when the citizens had placed more trust on this present administration to block all loopholes and wastages at which public funds are mismanaged.
“The Governor knows the right thing to do and he should stop playing down on people’s sense of intelligence. The fact that the Governor gives order to contractors to go back to site to make adjustment on the identified items of work in the contract bill is a pointer that His Excellency does not understand the basic sequences of project execution. It looks like the Governor is trying to protect the contractor from facing the legal music of contract breach”, says Olaitan.
“Going by the contractor’s rejoinder on the report published by ENETSUD, it is clear that the contractor admitted that some items of work as contained in the approved BEME was changed. The acclaimed reasons behind such decision are quite unacceptable as no evidence was presented to backup all claims during the project evaluation and assessment. While agree that the burden of defence lies on the shoulder of the supervising MDA who ought to have raised a reviewed BEME which will serve as an official approval allowing the Contractor to proceed with some changes in the scope of work if at all there is a claim for fluctuations. Nothing to that effect was reported, hence the rejoinder remains as a damage control exercise, a weak one at that.”
Speaking further, the group spokesperson insists that KWSG needs to firstly sanitise her administration off bad eggs who collide with contractors to shortchange the people of their rights to quality social amenities.
“We expect workable preventive measures that will halt contract agreement breach as witnessed in the project execution of College of Education Road, Government High School Adeta, College of Education Ilorin Road and among others. It couldn’t have been possible for those alleged contractor(s) to succeed in defrauding the state without the knowledge of the concerned MDAs. We observed that the Contractor has stylishly shifted most of the blame on the supervising MDA putting them in a defence zone. We are watching how the supervising MDA will play the role of a Judge in a case she is a respondant without bias.
“Some of the questions that beg for answers are: Who are the Resident Engineers attached to the project from the MDA? Who rare the work performance of the Contractor? Who raised and signed the Certificate of Valuation?
“Enough should be enough, we demand that appropriate legal punishment should be metted on whoever is found wanting in the scandal. The approach should be transparent as no cover up ploy will be entertained. On no account should Carrot be served to a person who deserves Stick, all the involved parties must be answerable to the roles they played in the project execution.
“And lastly, we recommend that an indigenous consultant should be attached to every project to monitor the project execution and ensure strict compliance with contract documents.
Signed:
Comrade Olaitan Abdulraheem,
The Publicity Secretary,
The People’s Voice Advocacy Network.
