Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara state has directed that no further payment should be made to the contractor handling the Kwara State College of Education Road in Ilorin until the exact figures ascertained in line with an audited report that exposed some disparities between the work done and what was approved.
He equally suggested that the contractor might make refunds to the government if the variations of job done are below the balance of the amount of job said to have been left undone, though the government is yet to finish due payment to the contractors.
A statement from the Government Office said in a zoom meeting in July with the Elite Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD) Abdullateef Alagbonsi, the Governor proposed social audit to enable civic groups and host communities to track government projects as part of his efforts to guarantee value for public funds. One of the projects being tracked is the College of Education Road, Ilorin.
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ENETSUD Deputy Coordinator Comrade, Aliu Mashood (Osho) told the governor that the audit revealed a disparity between what was contained in BEME and the actual job was done with regards to the BEME contents, especially the length and the breadth of the road, amounting to N16.6m.
He said the length of the road in the BEME was 800 metres while the actual length on-site was 696m, although ministry officials said the exact length on site is 700 metres.
Mashood urged the government to order the contractor back to the site to add an additional 1 cm to its thickness and to refund the shortfall for the job not done.
Asked to explain the disparities observed, the project manager for the contractor Dotmic Options Limited Babatunde Akorede admitted that the length in the BEME differs from what was on site.
