Contractors of ongoing road projects in Oyo State have been told they have a maximum of three months to do the jobs that would be commensurate with the mobilisation funds they had received from the state government.
Failure to adhere to the directive, it was said, would make the government to take necessary steps to enforce contractual agreements signed at the commencement of their contracts.
The State Commissioner for Public Works and Transportation, Prof Raphael Afonja, revealed this on Tuesday in Ibadan while on inspection tour of ongoing road projects in the state.
Afonja added that if after the expiration of the three months grace period 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.
“We are here to inspect the level of work done in relation to the mobilisation 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.
“They have three months from now to meet up with the work that will commensurate with the mobilisation they were paid or government will be forced to revisit these contracts and do the needful.
“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.”
According to the commissioner, mobilisation funds had been given to the contractors and as a result, they had no excuse not to work, more so they needed to utilize the dry season to work effectively.
He added that the ministry wanted to make sure that the contractors had quality control team on site always, to make sure that the right things were done, in terms of the road designs and for the ministry to have quality assurance team that would supervise what was done at the sites.
He said before the advent of the present administration, the Ministry of Works was not allowed to supervise any project, that the services of consultants were always engaged for road designs and supervision.
He charged the contractors to engage more manpower on site to work day and night to ensure timely completion of the jobs, adding that most of the contracts were awarded over three years ago and ought to have been completed.
