House of Representatives Member Unhappy over Award of Contracts without Payment
The House of Representatives member representing Ethiope Federal Constituency, Hon. Ben Roland Igbakpa recently decried the award of contracts to contractors without payment in a chat with newsmen. According to him, the act is fraudulent.
By Success okuchemiya
He equally expressed disatisfaction with the poor state of roads across the country.Accordingly he noted that there are federal controllers of works in every state who look at the roads and come up with reports whenever there are issues with the federal roads. According to him, they write their reports and send bill of quantity to Abuja but wondered why government beaurocratic bottlenecks make the reports about the roads lie idle for upward of one year and before one knows it, a small pothole will develop into a ditch that will thereafter tear the roads into two.
Specifically, the Abuja Lawmaker made reference to the Benin Sapele road leading to Warri where a bad spot on the road between Oghara and Mosoghar now make motorists to spend almost two hours before passing the bad spot. According to him” I remember I have been talking about this road and I even raised a motion concerning the state of the road.
Couriously, Igbakpa said after the contract has been awarded the contractor is saying he has not been paid for previous contract and would need the payment to enable the company begin work on the road project. The federal Lawmaker therefore wondered why the budgetary system allows for projects to be awarded when there is no money.
According to him “Though it is not compulsory that one must run the budget 100% but after the budget has been passed, the government can choose its priority projects, but to award a contract and the contractor finishes and the same institution that awards the contract can not pay is not only totally unacceptable, it’s a fraud and an aberation that should not be encouraged”.
Hon Igbakpa while urging Nigerians to desist from political violence, noted that most people don’t believe their votes can count hence out of ingnorance engage in violence. He however stressed that Nigerians need to believe in the system and he made reference to the recent Edo State election which According to him, showed that the people’s votes can indeed count. He further stated that the nation’s electoral act is going to be amended
Meanwhile, he noted that he was encouraged to embark on different empowerment programs geared towards youths development because there are many empowerment programs for those who are ready to engage in employable ventures. This he said he was prepared to sponsor from time to time. Aside from the ones he has sponsored in the past.
He equally expressed grave concern about Nigerians that are being raped as well as how Nigeria move away from Agriculture and focused only on crude oil. According to him
“Things have to change in other to have a better Nigeria”
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