Orereh Bridge: We’ll no longer allow contractors take projects they can’t finish on time – Oborevwori

Governor Sheriff Oborevwori has said that his administration would no longer allow contractors to handle projects they would not finish.

The governor, who disclosed this during inspection of Orereh Bridge in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state, said his administration would no longer allow contractors take projects they could not finish on time.

Orereh Bridge in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State, is a project embarked upon by previous administration in the state and connects over 15 riverine communities.

The bridge is very key to several communities within the area as it is impossible to access the communities without it.

Oborevwori, the incumbent governor whose administration has inherited the project, inspected the project on Friday and frowned at the slow pace of work on the bridge that would benefit about 15 communities when completed.

“If there is no economic value, there is no way we can put this kind of bridge here. Moreover they (the inhabitants of these communities) are also Deltans and we have promised that we will be fair and just to the people of Delta State.

“From here, you can access so many of these villages and bringing their products to the town. Instead of using boats, they will just drive through and even people can come from outside to the communities to buy produce.

“We have over five kilometers of road across because completing this bridge without the road we will not make much meaning to inhabitants of these communities.”

While decrying the slow pace of work, Oborevwori, stated, “There is no enough speed on this job. If we continue like this, how long will I be coming here for inspection? he queried and expressed belief that when he comes again, it should be for final inspection before the commissioning of the project.

“So, the contractor has till the end of this year to see what they will be able to do, even if we have to reduce their contract work in other places so they can concentrate.

“This is imperative because we can’t just have contractors with so many contracts and moving from one site to another sampling equipment when we are going for inspection.

“We will encourage contractors to take what they can do, when you finish your job on time, we will give you another job so that’s what we will be doing now.

“Those who are having too many jobs, we are going to revoke some of them that are not performing but if you are performing no problem. If you are not performing, we will revoke your contract and give it to those who can perform.

“Before now, some will give excuse about payment but there is no excuse about that because we pay you. If you have a certificate today, we will pay.

“We don’t do cash budget on monthly basis, we do it on weekly basis to pay people. The contractor has to apply speed on this job because time is running.

“By the time we are celebrating our second year anniversary, I should be able to have a lot of jobs to commission.

This inspection is to ascertain work done by these contractors and also look at their performance, so coming here today, the quality of work is okay for their standard, but there is no speed, we want speed on this job.

“Like I promised before that we are also going to engage indigenous contractors and that is what we are doing.

“Even though we are using some international companies, we also need to engage our local contractors and I think the quality of work is okay.

“We need to encourage our local contractors, but I am not happy with the speed of work, the momentum is not okay, the contractor needs to step up activity,” he said.