Kwara state government has threatened the contractors handling State Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) works in the state to do quality work or risk revocation of their contracts and further blacklist.
Giving the warning, the Chairman of UBEC/SUBEB in the state, Professor Shehu Raheem Adaramaja said “Contractors who fail to meet project specifications and quality in the ongoing UBEC/SUBEB jobs risk revocation of their contracts and possible blacklist”
Prof. Adaramaja, speaking in Gorobani Village, Kaiama Local Government Area of the state during the inspection of ongoing UBEC/SUBEB intervention projects for 2014-2019, said the Board would not hesitate to apply appropriate punitive measures against any contractors who fails to comply with specifications of the projects.
“To the contractors, the message is clear: get it done the way it should be done and get paid, failure to do that, we will reverse the contract. After the first and second warning, the third warning is to revoke the contract. The guideline is clear and we are not going to compromise,” he warned .
“We don’t want a situation where somebody will just write to us requesting for payment; we want to see it ourselves, we want to see the percentage of work done before payment is made because we don’t want to have abandoned projects. We will pay you base on actual job done because we don’t want people to run away with public money. That is the message from the Governor and we happy for that, we appreciate him for tailoring the path of honour.”
Various renovation/rehabilitation works are ongoing across 600 schools in Kwara State, thanks to the state recently accessing seven year matching grants from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC).
Prof. Adaramaja appreciated the Governor for giving the Board free hands to operate which he attributed to the successes recorded in the ongoing monitoring exercise.
“I want to appreciate His Excellency, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for giving us the enabling environment to operate because in the past it wasn’t like this. If there is any complaint, people will run to the Governor but he said no, go and do your work because when you take up a job, you must do it the way it is supposed to be done . So, that is why all of us are out moving from one village to another to ensure that the projects are properly supervised,” he added.
Some of the projects inspectied in Kaiama Local Government included renovation of four classrooms at Tunga Aboki LGEA Primary School; remodelling of five classrooms at LGEA Central Primary School, Kaiama; renovation of four classrooms, construction of a block of two classrooms and construction of four compartment of VIP toilet at Kamaji LGEA Primary School; and remodeling of four classrooms with two offices at LGEA Primary School Bezira.
