· Uduaghan cautions against contracts variations
Delta state government has suspended the award of fresh contracts on road construction pending when all existing contracts have been completed.
Announcing this while addressing contractors handling road and drainage projects in the state, the state governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan said that the suspension of new contracts would enable his government concentrate and complete all ongoing road and drainage projects.
He enjoined the contractors to mobilize to site once the rains were over and complete their contracts before the end of December.
He urged them to work day and night and complete their projects so that Deltans would enjoy good roads.
The governor also told the contractors that he would not entertain further delay especially as he had promised to adequately fund the projects. “You should therefore mobilize to site once the rains are over and complete your jobs. There should be no excuses,” he said.
The governor cautioned the contractors against the submission of letters for variation stressing that it was the antics used by the contractors to increase the value of their contracts.
Dr. Uduaghan warned against such antics explaining that any variation made on a contract which was not more than one year would not be entertained.
“I find that contractors are always submitting variation every time and even on contracts that are not up to a year. This is not acceptable because if they did not like the contract value they should not have accepted the contract in the first place,” he said.
The Governor, who admonished those who often abandon their projects only to reappear with variations to either accept contracts as awarded or reject it at the initial stage.
Dr. Uduaghan who explained that the issue of variation often disorganized the budget said “variation is unfair because budgets are planned and acceptance of variation on new projects will not do the state any good. So contractors should either accept contract as it is or reject them from the onset.”
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Works Chief Funkekeme Solomon said his ministry has been reorganized to ensure efficient service delivery.
Chief Solomon said some of the lapses observed in the past had been corrected to ensure that certificates submitted by contractors for payment were promptly processed.
He however enjoined the contractors to work to specification and complete their jobs on schedule.
Some of the contractors who spoke enjoined the governor to pay for the jobs they have completed.
They also appealed to him to intervene in the processing of the certificates of job completed as there were unnecessarily delayed.
