8 years after award of contract, work done at Ede power substation ‘unacceptable’

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), on Wednesday, expressed dissatisfaction with the level work so far done at the $1.5 billion 2X 60 MVA substation in Ede, Osun.

Sule Unekwu, Head of Accounts and South-West Team Leader Monitoring and Evaluation, FRC, expressed the dissatisfaction after the team’s verification of the Federal Government’s project in Ede.

“The substation power project, which is critical to the Federal Government, was awarded in March 2011 to Cobra Venture Infrastructure and SIBGA JV Limited at the cost of $1.5 billion.

“The contractor came on site in 2014 while the project has been funded with about 50 per cent of the budgeted estimate, but only 28 per cent of the work has been accomplished. This is unacceptable.

“What the contractor had been given is far more than what is on ground and we are not satisfied with the level of work done,” he said.

Mr Unekwu said the commission was evaluating ongoing government projects to ensure that contractors maintained international standards and value for the money spent.

He said that the commission would ensure that contractors did the right thing.

The FRC team leader further said that the commission would report its findings to the appropriate quarters.

“The project is critical to the Federal Government but we have discovered that it had not been dutifully supervised as we had expected,” he said.

Mr Unekwu advised that whenever projects were awarded, the supervising authorities must ensure that such projects were duly supervised and completed as specified and scheduled.

The representative of the firm, Fidel Obi, said the slow pace of work was as a result of the funds released to the company.

According to him, more equipment for the project are still being expected from Lagos for its completion.

He, however, appealed that the remaining contract sum be released for the completion of the project.

“We are short of funds, but I can assure you that once the remaining balance is released to us, the work will be completed within six months,” he said.