IN apt display of his administration’s zero tolerance for shoddy jobs, Delta State governor, Elder Sheriff Oborevwori, during a recent tour of road project sites across the state ordered a certain contractor back to site for a poorly executed job. Suspicious of a completed road drainage work, the governor used the tip of a machete to tap the edge of the structure; it came off easily exposing the laterite mix of which it was made, instead of solid concrete material as specified in the bill of engineering measurement and evaluation and the bill of quantities. The contractor had abandoned with impunity the specifications.
At yet another project site, the Commissioner for Works (Highways and Urban Roads), Hon Reuben Izeze, found in Warri that a contractor rebuilding the Central Hospital road used 8mm rods as against the 10mm rods specified for the project. The site engineer in this case had earlier identified the deceit and directed the contractor to adhere to the specification but his advice fell on deaf ears, explained the commissioner, who now ordered the contractor to abide by the laid down description.
The above contractual breaches are replicated across the state by mostly local contractors engaged to execute infrastructural projects. Their impact on roads mainly account for the quantum of shoddy jobs and failure of such roads in less than two to three years of their construction. While the contractors get more enriched by their attitude of “cutting corners”, they rarely get punished for such deceitful devices, which subsequently subject road users to traumatic experiences.
In this part of the country, road infrastructure takes a huge chunk of the annual budget of government. Just recently, the state government set aside N1billion each for the 25 local government areas for road development. Such huge sum if judiciously utilized, and as specified in the contractual terms, would enable the local government areas benefit from roads built to last.
In fact, Commissioner Izeze assured during one of his project tours that the incumbent administration would want to be remembered for legacy roads; roads that will not fail over a period of 15 years. “I want to be remembered for legacy roads, and I can assure that under my supervision as the Commissioner for Works (Highways and Urban Roads) none of our roads will fail in 15 years’ time.” But how can this be when contractors choose to build roads on their own terms, driven by greedy gains, instead of well-ordered bills of engineering measurement and quantities?
We join the government and the Delta State public to condemn the attitude of our contractors who, really, should perceive the jobs they are engaged to do as opportunity to serve the state instead of betraying the trust and confidence of the people for self-enrichment. However, poor project execution may not be the only cause for the early failure of roads in the state. Use of the roads by heavy-duty trucks, and poor maintenance culture of the roads contribute significantly to the problem.
We recall the quick deterioration of the Umutu-Umunede road when haulage trucks and petrol tankers started diverting to the route on account of the massive failure of the Agbor-Umutu stretch of the Agbor-Eku road. These huge haulage trucks indeed pose great and weighty challenge to virtually all roads in the state. This is why we advocate that the impact of such vehicles on roads should be taken into serious consideration while formulating the bills of engineering and quantities for road construction here.
Moreover, we urge government to keep close watch over its site engineers and other personnel assigned to supervise and monitor road projects. Some of them had in the past fallen for the temptation of filthy lucre dangled before them by desperate contractors. The unscrupulous among them are alleged to demand payments from contractors. In no small measure, this unpatriotic collusion compromise quality of jobs.
Furthermore, to guarantee construction of enduring roads in the state, government should de-emphasize political patronage in awarding jobs but base choice of contractors on competence and credible performance. Incompetent road construction firms as evidence had shown lack the capacity to deliver acceptable jobs. Not long ago, for instance, a firm doing a portion of the Asaba- Ughelli highway project was dropped because of shoddy performance and the job re-awarded. That, in our opinion, is the way it should be to get contractors to do their jobs well.
