ENGR. Goodnews Agbi was the governorship candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 general election.
He is now the Special Adviser to the Governor of Delta State, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori on Project Monitoring/Audit.
In this interview with DENNIS OTU, he speaks on how his regular tour of project sites have ensured that contractors adhere to specifications and deliver on time. Excerpts…
Tell us briefly about pedigree?
I am Engr. (Dr.) Goodnews Agbi, Special Adviser to the Governor on Project Monitoring/Audit.
Why was the Isoko ring road project stopped and what effort has been made to bring the contractors back to site?
When we came in, we discovered that work was not ongoing and so we tried to bring the parties together. We met the contractor’s representatives who said that the host communities were antagonizing them, that they were not cooperating with the contractor. That was their excuse. They also alleged that some of their materials were being stolen at the site, including tipper loads of sharp sand brought to the site. That was their complaint.
When we called the host community, they denied tampering with the contractor’s materials. So, what we did was to bring all the parties together in my office. The contractor, the Ministry involved and the host communities. We were able to broker peace between them and the contractor promised to go back to site after a communique was signed. We all agreed to go to the site and look at the project and see if there is going to be any engineering correction to reduce cost or to do realignment. We will shortly go to the site and see how the project can be restarted.
Can you tell us how many road projects are ongoing?
Well, I have lost count really but there are many of them. I will have to call on the engineers there, we can get you the total projects that are ongoing but for now, I don’t have them at my fingertips. But I know they are over 70 of them.
Has your office played a pivotal role in stopping or terminating any project ever since you came on board?
Well, we do our recommendations to His Excellency, when we see that a contractor is not competent. We try to encourage the contractor to go back to site, but if the contractor is not capable and not showing his capacity, then we make our recommendations to the Governor. So it is not for us to terminate any project. Ours is to monitor, observe, audit and then make necessary engineering suggestions to the Governor that this contractor is either capable or not capable. So, for the ones we have visited so far, we were able to stop only the one involving the Ufuoma Auditorium. When we got there, we found out that the place was shaking, the execution was very bad, there were some structural failures around the structure and we asked the contractor to stop until we redesign. We proffered solutions to how we can correct the defects before proceeding because these are about students’ welfare. They can gather in the Auditorium and one day it can collapse, God forbid. In such a thing, everyone will blame Government, they will not blame the contractor, they will say: look at the government, see what they did, they have killed our students. So we had to stop the work and called the contractor, awarding ministry and the supervising ministry to the office and we agreed for him to go and solve the problem. Some of the walls as well as areas underneath the auditorium were remodelled to be sure that the building does not collapse in the future. So the contractor has moved to site to effect those corrections. So that is the only one in particular that we stopped. For every other one, if they are not doing it very well, we will also stop them irrespective of the company, like the other day we intervened in the Emevor section of Ughelli-Asaba dual carriage way.
We are not particular about Nigerian contractors, but any contractor not doing his work very well. We will ask them to do it well, we did the same thing in Ishiagu and I am sure the Governor will soon commission that road. If you look at the road now, it is beautiful but when we got there initially, the job was not professionally done. But somehow, we have been able to correct it and the contractor has done a good job.
Our function is not to witch hunt the contractor, but to make sure the job is done perfectly in line with the MORE Agenda of His Excellency. That is what we do, the MORE Agenda of the Governor is to do quality jobs and ours is to ensure that quality jobs are carried out and that is our mandate and we are keeping to our mandate. Our mandate is also audit. That is if you finish your job, we will go and check, if you say your job is 3.3km road, we will go and do physical measurement to be sure it matched specification. That is because along the line of our monitoring, we have observed that some contractors cut corners. Instead of 3.3km, for instance, they will do 3.2km and start asking for payment and so we do such confirmations. Of course, you know that we are able to do this because of our profession. In this office, we have the industrial experience in these jobs. So, it will be very difficult for any contractor to hoodwink us to cut corners without our knowing, both on the field and academics.
This is just a follow up to that. What about allegations of collusion between contractors and civil servants in raising certificates for jobs not done. Is the practice still rampant?
Wel,l with the vibrancy of the Directorate of Monitoring and Audit, such practices, if they were in practice before, have ceased. This is because we now have an independent third party that vets the conclusios of our regular personnel. Before then, what obtained was that the office relied on the conclusions of the contractor and the awarding ministry. Let me put it this way, hitherto, the client, which is the Ministry will be the one to take out the project, be the one to scope it, they will be the one to go and bring the consultants, they will now be the one to also design, be the one to award, be the one to supervise and at the same time be the one to pay. It is natural that when you lift these chains of work that does not have adequate in-built mechanism for self audit, there is bound to be some frictions. But we are here trying to block such frictions.
What is your candid assessment of His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevworii’s road map for developing Delta State?
I think Deltans should be grateful to God that they have a Governor like His Excellency. Anywhere you go in the state, there are projects going on. The projects are creating jobs for our people, creating jobs for the communities. That is why I said we should be thankful to God that we have a man like our Governor today. He has been able to push the state, the landscape has changed, some of you are only in Asaba, you don’t travel very much. If you do, like the way we move in all the nooks and crannies of the state, there are a lot of projects ongoing, including the jobs inherited from previous administrations. He is completing them. He is also completing the ones he initiated. So we should be thankful to God that we have a very good Governor.
At the end of post Exco meetings, during briefing, we often hear where there are upward review of contract costs. It happens all the time probably because of inflation. So what is the government doing to fast track the completion of projects in order to avoid this situation?
Yes, it is not something that is localized. Until the government of President Tinubu came in, we know that with the increase in fuel, things have skyrocketed and if you are executing a project, the cost per unit of materials at that time is no longer what they are now. So anyone thinking that the upward review of contract costs is uninformed. Government wants the contractor to work and it is inevitable for the contract costs to be reviewed upwards due to unprecedented inflation precipitated by Aso Rock’s policies.
Like one contractor was saying that when they moved to site cement was around #3,000 and now at the site it rose to #15,000; #12,000 before it came back to #8,500. You see, that it is a large gap and you know cement is a necessary material, diesel too has gone up, so all these things had to be looked into.
The government thinks twice before reviewing contract costs. Besides, it is not every time we hold Exco meeting that contracts are reviewed upwards. Government is a continuum, so there must be processes to be adhered to all the time. If you have been awarded a contract and raised certificate before and after every stage of execution, it is not unusual for the job to dovetail beyond the period earlier envisaged. Government is not just dashing contractors money.
If you have 3km of road contract and you have done 2km, the remaining part of the contract to be concluded is what is reviewed for you and it is natural justice that it is good for them to continue working.
If the Governor has done so much for Deltans within one year, what is your message to Deltans?
Deltans should cooperate wholeheartedly with the Governor. I am saying it categorically that the Governor means well. Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori means well for the state. I am telling you the truth. Look at all the jobs he awarded. He has not awarded anyone in Osubi, his hometown. The other time he said that he is awarding jobs everywhere and has not awarded anyone in his place. So, what does that tell you of his person. He means well for everybody. He is not selfish, he is not thinking of his own. So, I am proud working with such a Governor honestly. So Deltans should also join us and help us at the Directorate to change the narrative. We in the Directorate are not ominipresent, we can only go to certain places at the same time as pointed out by Deltans. Anytime you see shoddy jobs, just call us, we will go there and if they are not adhering to specifications, we will stop them and make recommendations to His Excellency that this person is not doing well. The Governor is not ominipresent as well, but it is what we feed him, he acts upon.
