The Enugu State government has expressed disappointment with some of the contractors handling the state government’s ongoing 260 Smart Green Schools and the 260 Type-2 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) across the state.
Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu State, disclosed the government’s feelings on Thursday, during a stakeholder’s meeting with all the contractors handling the projects in Enugu and warned that the state government would not condone delay in the delivery timelines of all the projects.
Mbah called on the contractors to redouble their efforts to ensure that they deliver within the timelines.
He flawed at some of them that blamed the delay on the rainy season, rough topography, shortage of manpower and logistics constraints, directing them to source for more hands in order to meet the delivery dates.
Mbah also assured that his administration was already setting up mechanism for the rewards and recognition of contractors who have distinguished themselves in terms of quality and speedy delivery of their projects with more contracts for their capacity and commitment.
According to him, the state government had already earmarked enough funds for all the projects, assuring that payments will continue to be made at the right time to contractors.
“Let me once again reiterate that you have our support and we’ll continue to make funds available to you. Once you are able to raise your certificate, you will be paid within five days because we’ve no reason to hold onto your money. So, for us money is not a problem. We gave you these projects because you have the capacity to deliver,” he said.
He explained that his administration had previously intervened in areas of variation of costs because of inflation, stressing that such intervention was designed to serve as motivation for quality job and speedy delivery.
He warned that the administration would not entertain sabotage, cost overruns and time overruns as all contractors were fully mobilized except those having issues with their advance payment guarantee who were paid as soon as they rectified it.
“The most important focus of the administration was to ensure that all children in the state, including those living in remote and rural areas have access to the type of education any child could be exposed to in the world that would equip them for the future challenges”. He said.
Mbah told the people that the PHCs, which should be delivered before the end of December 2024, were carefully conceived to eliminate infant and maternal as well as under-five mortalities which he described as unacceptable.
Speaking on behalf of the contractors, Chukwudi Nwankwo and Steve Oruruo, pledged that they would deliver in time and commended the governor for promoting local contents, saying that the initiative had created thousands of both skilled and unskilled jobs in the private sector.
They extolled the governor for making funds available to them, insisting that they had no excuse not to meet with their own terms of the contracts by delivering on the agreed dates.
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