Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State

Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan

Oyo State Government has ordered the contractors handling roads projects awarded by the last administration to execute the projection to the commensurate mobilization funds they were given or be ready for sanction.

Revealing this while on inspection tour of ongoing road projects in the state, the State Commissioner for Public Works and Transportation, Prof Raphael Afonja, stated that failure of the contractors to live up to expectation would force the government to enforce the contractual agreements signed at the commencement of their contracts.

Afonja added that if after the expiration of the three months grace period and they were yet to deliver on the work that would meet the acquired funding, necessary steps would be taken as regards some of the clauses stipulated in the initial agreement.

According to him, “We are here to inspect the level of work done in relation to the mobilization gotten by the contractors and with the spate of work. I am promising the contractors that government will not allow the public fund to go waste or be misused. There were terms in the contract agreements signed by the government and contractors when they were given the jobs. They will have to deliver on this. The purpose of our visit today was to follow up on the initial assessment of the projects we met when we came on board and also to make sure that they’re doing quality work on site and also to catch up on lapse time that has been wasted”.

The Commissioner noted that the mobilization funds have been given to the contractors and as a result, they have no excuse not to work, more so they needed to utilize the dry season to work effectively.

He added that part of the work of the Ministry is to ensure that the contractors have quality control team on site always and ensuring that the right things were done in terms of the road designs.

He said before the advent of the present administration, the Ministry of Works was not allowed to supervise any project as the last administration employed private consultants for road designs and supervision.

“Before we came on board, the workers of the Ministry of Works were not allowed to supervise any project by the previous administration. They brought in consultants that did the project design and supervision. Now, we are taking ownership. Now, we are going back to review the designs and the bills to ensure there are no breaches of any form anywhere and that quality jobs are done in the State”, he explained.

He charged the contractors to employ more hands so as to work day and night in other to ensure timely completion of the jobs, stressing that most of the contracts were awarded over three years ago and ought to have been completed.