Kwara indigenous contractors, suppliers disagree with Perm Sec on tender notice, capacity

By Adebayo Olodan

The Kwara State indigenous contractors and suppliers under the All Progressives Congress (APC) has disagreed with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Dr Yusuf Garba Manjo on the short notice of tender, registration fee and capacity of its members.
The group in a statement by its Coordinator, Alhaji Moshood Bolakale Aigoro, in while reacting to a press release issued on Saturday by the Permanent Secretary, Dr Yusuf Garba Manjo, said indigenous contractors and suppliers in the APC are not out to challenge the authority of the ministry.
“We are not out to condemn the office of the Permanent Secretary but we need to set the record straight in order to ensure the welfare of our people.
“We wish to emphasise that we have absolute capacity to handle projects worth billions of naira in sharp contrast to the N5 million – N10 million contracts, the Permanent Secretary tagged us with.
“Also, we disagree with Dr Manjo that the tender fee (N350, 000) was not inflated by the ministry. We could recollect that under the administration of Dr Bukola Saraki and Hon Afolabi from Moro as Works and Transport commissioner, the tender fee was pegged at N50,000.
“We must state that quoting a huge figure as tender fee does not determine job quality to by contractors. It must however be said that we the indigenous contractors are not afraid of tendering N1million for a job but what we are scared of is the hidden agenda of the leadership of the Ministry of Works and Transport.
“Without guessing, the Permanent Secretary and other management staff of the ministry are not transparent in their dealings and they appear not disposed to encouraging and helping in building the capacity of local contractors.
“In Section 3, No 4 of the adverts in The Herald Newspaper, the evidence of registration of a firm with COREN among other requirements by the Ministry is a fallacy. We implore the Permanent Secretary to make public the list of Alhajis, party leaders and others with authentic COREN that were awarded contracts under the last administration.
“With due respect, our Perm Sec is a lawyer and not an engineer hence he may be uninformed that COREN registration requires gradual advancement.”
The group also decried the exorbitant N750,000 registration fee adding that, “We the indigenous  contractors and suppliers wish to state emphatically that we do not accept the one week tender notification as against the practice of  three to four weeks obtained in other states.
“Also, any contractor patronised by the state government must patronise our tipper owners across the three senatorial districts of Kwara and all items needed at various sites under our Omoluabi Governor, Alhaji Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq must be supplied by indigenous suppliers (both male and female).
“The non patronage of indigenous contractors and suppliers and sharp practices by officials of the ministry are taking their toll on the state’s economy and could partly be blamed on the alarming rate of crime and criminality in Kwara.
“Finally, we want to implore the present administration through all the ministries to ensure subsequent beneficiaries of contracts and supplies are indigenes and non indigenes that are residing and operating office in Kwara State.
“We also call on Dr Manjo and others to build the capacity of local contractors if he is so desirous of seeing a Kwara that is dominated by COREN certified engineers,” the group submitted.