Just In: Oyo govt. to revoke four road contracts – Commissioner hints

No fewer than  four contractors that have been allegedly failed  to meet up with performance specifications and time lag in Oyo State will soon have their contracts terminated.

The State Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Prof. Rapheal Afonja  on Monday hinted at his office in Ibadan.

Governor Seyi Makinde has recently said the administration was compiling list of non-performing contractors in the State as he lamented the agony being experienced by the people living in the affected areas where road construction works were ongoing.

According to  Afonja , “we have got complaints across the State about pace and quality of work done by these contractors, His Excellency the governor also inspects the pace of work during the day and even in the night, I can tell you now that soon, termination notice will soon be given to four non-performing contractors.

“Complaints have come across the State and when we came on board, we had to do a contract review and we realized that the quality of work done by some of these contractors were low, we also realized that most of the agreements have also relapsed and none of them had performance bond in their files, the performance bond is a way to tell a contractor that if you don’t do a good job, you will be penalized.

“So we gave them time, which is the past five months which was to see if they could impress the government, we gave them our standard, our requirements, some of them have not lived up to it while some have, so with the approval of the governor, the next step is to issue termination notice to some of them.”

Among the contracts inherited by the present administration and are still ongoing as at time of this report is the dualization of Idi-Ape-Basorun-Akobo-Odogbo Barracks road in Ibadan and dualization of saki township along Oke-Ogun Poly-Ilesha-Ibariba road in Saki.

Others are Eleyele Junction-Akufo-Ido-Eruwa road, reconstruction of Moniya-Iseyin road and Agodi-Gate-Old Ife Road, Adegbayi in Ibadan.

Meanwhile the State government has said that the introduction of a new Park Management system in the State was aimed to plug holes in the income of of the State and not for political reasons.

The Commissioner for Public Works and Infrastructure, Prof Raphael Afonja said this while answering questions from journalists who were at his office after the inauguration of Park Managers for public motor parks in the State on Monday.

The Commissioner asserted that the people of Oyo State were happy that leaks in the State’s income were plugged while individuals appointed would work with trusted consultancy firm to generate income for the State, using technology to monitor activities and accountability of all players while all funds generated would go into the State coffers.