MDAs, contractors responsible for poorly implemented projects in my constituency – Senate President

By Adebayo Olodan

The Senate President and Chairman of the National Assembly at the weekend blamed inadequate coordination by relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), poor implementation by contractors and the dearth of funds for the poorly implemented projects in his constituency.

Saraki, who represents Kwara Central at the National Assembly, stated this while reacting to a Premium Times report published on December 1 and on Saturday (December 22) said the lawmakers have little or no input in the constituency projects.

According to him, the ministries are in-charge of all the processes, which include: the procurements for projects and its award to contractors.

He added that it is the project engineers from the MDAs who raise the Certificates of Valuations (CV) on projects executed by the contractors. This CV generated by officials of the Ministry is the document that certifies that contractors have executed the projects as designed and that the contractors are due for payments. Constituency offices have no input in this process — and are not consulted by the MDAs — despite the fact that they are closer to the community.

In a statement by the Director of Projects, ABS Constituency Office, Olayinka Ibrahim, Saraki condemned the poor execution of the projects especially the road project at Ero Omo Kilanko rural road and the Sheik Agbarigidoma Road.

The former Kwara State governor blamed the contractor and the Ministry of Agriculture for poor implementation of the N50 million Ero Omo Kilanko Road.

“Regarding the Ero Omo Kilanko community road: Neither the contractor for the project nor the Ministry of Agriculture —the coordinating MDA — informed the ABS Constituency Office about the commencement of the road project in the area.

“Over the years, the standing practice for such issues has been for the MDA that is implementing the project to communicate with the Constituency Office. This practice allows the Constituency Office to monitor the project’s implementation from commencement to when the project is finally handed over to the community.”

Reacting to the report on the Agbarigidoma Road, Saraki confirmed that the ‘newly constructed road’ is in a bad state but blamed the contractor.

“Regarding the Agbari Gidoma Road in Ilorin West Local Government: The contractor handling the project communicated that the project had been awarded to the ABS Constituency Office. Thereafter, the Director of Projects in the Constituency Office visited the site, alongside the contractor, to inform the community about the project.

“At the meeting with the community, the Director of Projects advised the community to constitute a project committee that will relate with the contractor. Additionally, in order to ensure that the community was apprised of the project specifications (i.e. the road length, etc.) the Director of Projects specifically requested that copies of the project documents be given to community leaders.

 “After the project was completed — according to the approved scope in the project award letter by the authorising Ministry — the community wrote to the ABS Constituency Office thanking it for facilitating the project and expressing satisfaction with the project.

“It is entirely valid that subsequently, potholes developed on the road. However, it is important to state that when the ABS Constituency Office became apprised of the potholes, the Director of Projects wrote to the Ministry of Agriculture (within the project liability period) asking the Ministry to immediately ensure that the potholes were worked on and other issues were corrected.

“The contractor was duly informed by the Ministry, and since then, engineers have been sent to address the defects. Additionally, there is also a standing resolution by the Ministry that the interlocking tiles should be used for this particular project as it is situated in a water-logged area.

“The steps taken by the ABS Constituency Office to address the issue have since been communicated to leaders of the affected community.”

Speaking further on the role of parties in constituency projects’ execution, Saraki said, “Apart from facilitating the inclusion of constituency projects in the budget, the legislators have limited input during the execution.”