The Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), a Kwara-based Civil Society Organization (CSO) reputed for its #FollowKwaraMoney activities, has queried some ₦53,511,672 in the Comprehensive Rehabilitation and Construction of Additional Facilities in the Patigi Secondary School project of Kwara State Government (KWSG) whose contract sum is ₦164,042,340. This was contained in the Social Audit report submitted by ENetSuD to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq dated 5th January, 2021.
It will be recalled that Kwara Social Audit, the first of its kind in the country, was initiated and proposed by the AbdulRahman-led Kwara State Government and has ENetSuD as the first (and presently only) CSO executing the audit in the public interest. In the Social Audit partnership between ENetSuD and KWSG, the latter is willingly releasing all the required contract documents to the former despite the non-domestication of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act by the State Assembly.
ENetSuD maintains its belief that the Social Audit is a step forward as it offers a useful opportunity for the public to interrogate projects being executed with public funds.
In the audit report signed by its Coordinator, Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef, ENetSuD divided its findings into 2 parts namely: the examination of the Bill of Quantity (BoQ) and the site evaluation of the works done by the contractor.
Concerning the examination of the BoQ, ENetSuD berated the professionalism in the preparation of the BoQ and told the Governor that the contract sum of the project appears to have been inflated in the BoQ by at least Thirty-One Million, Nine Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Seventy Hundred and Ninety-Nine Naira (₦31,980,799) due to the insertion of irrelevant items. “A sum of Twenty-Five Million, Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy Naira (₦25,499,870) was inserted without justifiable cause into the bills of 21 project units for progress photographs, distance projects, vetting fee, monitoring, inspection and evaluation, withholding tax (WHT), and development levy. Another sum of Six Million, Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand, Nine Hundred and Twenty-Eight Naira (₦6,480,928) was inserted into the bill summary for General Contingency, General Preliminary, and Monitoring, Inspection and Evaluation. The contingency and preliminary have already been provided for in each of the components, while the monitoring and evaluation is an odd item that should not be in the Bill of the contractor. Thus, they are not supposed to be added to the final contract sum in the bill summary, ENetSuD told the Governor.
Concerning the site evaluation of the works done by the contractor, ENetSuD told the Governor that various items in the BoQ worth Twenty-One Million, Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Eight Hundred and Seventy-Four Naira (₦21,530,874) were yet to be executed by the contractor as at 20th September, 2020 when its audit was concluded. “Using the same rate as approved in the BoQ and based on our re-assessment and re-evaluation of the works done on the site by the contractor, various items worth ₦21,530,874 have not been executed in the site when we visited it. This is contrary to the provisions made for them in the BoQ”, ENetSuD said.
