News

8 yrs after, Commission rejects work done at Ede power substation

 

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), on Wednesday, expressed
dissatisfaction with the level work so far done at the $1.5 billion 2X
60 MVA substation in Ede, Osun.
Sule Unekwu, Head of Accounts and South-West Team Leader Monitoring
and Evaluation, FRC, expressed the dissatisfaction after the team’s
verification of the Federal Government’s project in Ede.
“The substation power project, which is critical to the Federal
Government, was awarded in March 2011 to Cobra Venture Infrastructure
and SIBGA JV Limited at the cost of $1.5 billion.
“The contractor came on site in 2014 while the project has been funded
with about 50 per cent of the budgeted estimate, but only 28 per cent
of the work has been accomplished. This is unacceptable.
“What the contractor had been given is far more than what is on ground
and we are not satisfied with the level of work done,” he said.
Mr Unekwu said the commission was evaluating ongoing government
projects to ensure that contractors maintained international standards
and value for the money spent.
He said that the commission would ensure that contractors did the right thing.
The FRC team leader further said that the commission would report its
findings to the appropriate quarters.
“The project is critical to the Federal Government but we have
discovered that it had not been dutifully supervised as we had
expected,” he said.
Unekwu advised that whenever projects were awarded, the supervising
authorities must ensure that such projects were duly supervised and
completed as specified and scheduled.
The representative of the firm, Fidel Obi, said the slow pace of work
was as a result of the funds released to the company.
According to him, more equipment for the project are still being
expected from Lagos for its completion.
He, however, appealed that the remaining contract sum be released for
the completion of the project.
“We are short of funds, but I can assure you that once the remaining
balance is released to us, the work will be completed within six
months,” he said.

Show More

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button