Delta State governor, Sheriff Oborevwori said yesterday that the state government prepares payment schedule on a weekly basis to pay contractors as they turn-in their certificates.
The governor, who disclosed this during the inspection of Orere bridge in Ughelli South Local Government Area, said his administration would no longer allow contractors take projects they cannot finish on time.
He said Orere bridge which was started by the previous administration, connects over 15 riverine communities along the corridor.
“This bridge is key to several communities within this area, without this bridge, accessing those communities is very difficult. So when it is completed, it will be of very great benefit to about 15 communities around this area.
“Like I promised before that we are also going to engage indigenous contractors and that is what we are doing.
“Even though we are using some international companies, we also need to engage our local contractors and I think the quality of work is okay.
“We need to encourage them, but I am not happy with the speed of work, the momentum is not okay, the contractor needs to step up activity”, he said.
Continuing, Governor Oborevwori said; “there is no enough speed on this job, if we continue like this, how long will I be coming here for inspection? I believe that when I come again, it should be for final inspection before commissioning.
“So the contractor has till the end of this year to see what they will be able to do, even if we have to reduce their contract work in other places so they can concentrate.
“This is imperative because we cannot just have contractors with so many contracts and moving from one site to another sampling equipment when we are going for inspection.
“We will encourage contractors to take what they can do, when you finish your job on time, we will give you another job so that is what we will be doing now.
“Those who have too many jobs, we are going to revoke some of them that are not performing, but if you are performing no problem, if you are not performing, we will revoke your contract and give it to those who can perform.
“Before now some will give excuse about payment, but there is no excuse about that because we pay you if you have a certificate.
“We don’t do cash budget on a monthly basis, we do it on weekly to pay people. The contractor has to apply speed on this job because time is running out.
“By the time we are celebrating our second year anniversary, I should be able to have a lot of jobs to commission.
“This inspection is to ascertain the work done by these contractors and also look at their performance, so coming here today, the quality of work is okay for their standard, but there is no speed, we want speed on this job.”
