An anti-corruption civil society organization, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD) has raised concerns over the inflation of the contract sum meant for the renovation of Government High School, Ilorin to the tune of N40,530,208.
This is part of its activities in relation to the social audit policy initiated by Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq led government.
According to the organization, irrelevant items were observed to have been added to the Bill of Quantity (BoQ) of the project, thereby causing the inflation of the contract sum.
The contract for the renovation of the school was approved by the Kwara State Government for the sum of N361,957,439.
In a letter written to the Governor on 14th May 2021 and signed by its Coordinator, Dr. Alagbonsi Abdullateef, ENetSuD said that “Our re-calculation of the BoQ shows that the accurate contract sum was supposed to be Three Hundred and Twenty-One Million, Four Hundred and Twenty-Seven Thousand, Two Hundred and Thirty-Three Naira (₦321,427,233) instead of the ₦361,957,439 approved by the Ministry for the LOTS 1 and 2 of the GHS project. This has led to an avoidable miscalculation of the contract sum as a result of the addition of irrelevant items worth Forty Million, Five Hundred and Thirty Thousand, Two Hundred and Eight Naira (₦40,530,208).
“ENetSuD noted that apart from the substantive works (items) billed in each project’s BoQ, the only additions that should normally reflect before arriving at the total are the Preliminaries, Contingency and VAT. ENetSuD therefore listed the irrelevant items that amounted to ₦40,530,208 as supervision, monitoring and evaluation for each project’s bill; project design and production of BoQ for each project’s bill; progress photographs for each projects’ bill; project labelling for each project’s bill; vetting for each project’s bill; 5% WHT for each project’s bill; 3% development levy for each project’s bill; general contingency at the end of the overall bill summary; general preliminary at the end of the overall bill summary; and monitoring, inspection and evaluation at the end of the overall bill summary.”
ENetSuD prayed to the Governor to consider and approve the revision of the contract sum of GHS, Ilorin from the approved ₦361,957,439 to ₦321,427,233, while advising him to use the excess ₦40,530,208 for other people-oriented projects like the provision of water to marginalized communities across Kwara State without access to potable water.
The organization meanwhile said the miscalculation of the contract sum revealed by it is only on the re-assessment of the BoQ and not yet a judgement from the technical re-measurement of the work done at site (which shall be re-visit on completion).
