The group stated that it made the discovery during an audit of the five projects through its #FollowKwaraMoney campaign which started in September 2020.
A civil society organisation, Elites Network for Sustainable Development, has queried the Kwara State Government over the execution of five projects worth N7.2 billion but with more than N929 million allegedly said to have been embezzled.
The group stated that it made the discovery during an audit of the five projects through its #FollowKwaraMoney campaign which started in September 2020.
According to ENetSuD, the projects involved in the monitoring were Ilesa Baruba – Gwanara Road in the Baruten Local Government Area; the Geri Alimi Diamond Underpass Road in Ilorin, the Patigi Secondary School, Patigi LGA, the College of Education Road, Ilorin, and the Government High School, Ilorin.
The ENetSuD Coordinator, Dr Alagbonsi Abdullateef, said the group had questions about N929,542,905 in the listed projects.
He said, “On Ilesa Baruba – Gwanara Road, the harmonised contract sum of Ilesa Baruba – Gwanara Road in Baruten LGA was N3,048,129,348. ENetSuD is yet to visit the site of the project but did a pre-visit audit of the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation approved to arrive at the contract sum by the ministry.
“We discovered that the approved contract sum in the BEME for the project is grossly incorrect as we observed a discrepancy of N751,551,647 in the contract sums.
“On the Geri Alimi Diamond Underpass, Ilorin, the contract sum for Geri Alimi Diamond Underpass is N3,639,444,660. Considering the nature of the project, many structures were buried underground and could have been measured accurately only during the execution stage. We were able to calculate a questionable shortage of about N107,803,155.
“In Patigi Secondary School, Patigi LGA, we feel a sum of N31,980,799 was inserted without a justifiable cause into the bills of 21 projects for irrelevant items. We used the same rate as approved and based on our re-assessment and re-evaluation of the works done on the site by the contractor, various items worth N21,530,874 were not executed in the site when we visited it.
“At the College of Education (COED) Road, Ilorin, the total contract sum of the COED road project was N63,372,030:75. However, the total amount of work that the contractor did not do on the site based on ENetSuD’s re-evaluation was N16,676,430. This is aside from the 1-centimetre asphaltic concrete that needed to be added to the road to meet up with the approved thickness.”
The group also highlighted the project at the Government High School Ilorin worth N361,957,438, saying the level of work done by the contractor was not due for quantitative evaluation as the project was still ongoing.