From Paul Osuyi, Asaba
Representatives of civil society groups in Delta State have embarked on the inspection of road projects being executed by the state government across the 25 local government areas.
Commissioner for Works James Augoye who disclosed this in Asaba on Tuesday at a press briefing said the groups were on an independent monitoring exercise to ascertain the quality of jobs being executed by the Ministry of Works.
Augoye urged contractors handling various projects for the ministry not to be frustrated by the multiple supervision of their jobs, insisting that the aim was to ensure that projects were executed according to approved scope and specification.
The ministry has three layers of job supervision including the team of field engineers, ministry officials at the level of directors and the office of the commissioner.
State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa recently constituted the state Project Implementation, Evaluation and Monitoring Team to further supervise jobs being executed by contractors in the state.
Augoye told journalists that some contractors were not cooperating with the monitoring teams, maintaining that the multiple supervision was not meant to witch hunt any contractor but to add value to project delivery.
‘We are appealing to contractors to ensure that they cooperate with the teams. Whenever they are on site, they should oblige them with all necessary documents needed to ensure that they carry out their inspection effectively.
‘Our field engineers should provide the necessary documents such as drawings, designs and the like.
‘This has become necessary because if the monitoring team which reports directly to the governor finds out that your job is not up to standard, certification will not be carried out, meaning that jobs done will not be certified for payment.
‘Field officers who refused to cooperate with the team would be sanctioned, we have a way of dealing with them. We will withdraw them from the field and bring them to the headquarters where they would be subjected to certain punishment.
‘The management team of the ministry has decided to work closely with the monitoring team to ensure that projects are done according to specification,’ he stated.
