By Owen Akenzua, Asaba
The Special Adviser to the Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’ of Delta State on Project Monitoring, Dr. Goodnews Agbi, currently in an alleged scandal involving over 39 million naira for office stationeries.
Agbi, who was appointed in September last year, 2023, allegedly received a sum of 6 million naira as office imprest to carry out project monitoring, in addition to other accruals from the Ministry of Economic Planning.
According to reports, Agbi created four monitoring teams of about 8 to 10 persons each, giving them a monthly imprest of 400,000 naira per team, totaling 1.6 million naira monthly. This leaves him with a balance of 4.4 million naira every month. Over nine months, this amounts to 39.6 million naira, presumably for the purchase of office stationeries and SPAD inspections.
Our source revealed that Agbi conducts project inspections once a month at the cost of 4.6 million naira for one day.
He schedules about three to five different projects for inspection in one day, and at the end of the day, he gets the accountant and Permanent Secretary to raise a voucher of 4.6 million naira for office stationeries and project inspection, which he collects. This practice has been ongoing for the past nine months.
One of the project monitors, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the government has not provided the Office of Project Monitoring with a well-defined structure or framework. A monthly office imprest of 6 million naira is dumped at the office, which the SPAD uses unchallenged.
The SPAD pockets 4.6 million naira every month for office stationeries and a one-day inspection. The actual money spent is the 1.6 million naira given to the four project monitoring teams (400,000 naira each). This lax and cash-driven attitude of the SPAD has affected the project monitors, who also visit sites once a month, deducting the cost of fuel from the monthly 400,000 naira and sharing the balance among themselves.
Meanwhile, the SPAD is reportedly making undisclosed large sums of money from contractors, allowing them to continue poor job execution.
He harasses contractors who refuse to comply, using social media threats to close down their sites and other intimidation tactics to force them to pay him. However, once they pay him a substantial amount, the issues disappear, and he no longer visits those sites.
On May 8, Agbi allegedly organized a smokescreen workshop for project monitors, bringing a lecturer from Ozoro University and one of his church pastors to address them. At the end of the address, he gave project monitors 10,000 naira each.
This caused a serious rift between the SPAD and project monitors, who almost fought Agbi physically. The workshop had no materials, no lunch, and nothing provided, despite Agbi reportedly collecting about 5 million naira from the Ministry of Economic Planning to organize it.
One contractor confirmed that he had to pay 1.5 million naira to Agbi through a crony to avoid unnecessary harassment, even though his project was up to standard. A contractor in Delta Central said that once Agbi informs you of a site visit, you must set aside about 1.5 million naira to pacify him, as he will find faults with every aspect of the project.
This is the first time the head of the office has been involved in financial sleaze since its creation, according to one project monitor. Previous heads like Hon. Erijo, Ovie Oghoore, and Chief Tony Ofoni managed the office without such scandals. They handled contractors privately and reported non-compliant ones to the Governor. Only well-executed jobs were showcased to credit the Governor and Delta State Government, unlike Agbi, who publicly harasses contractors.
Under Hon. Erijo, project monitors received extensive training from professional project consultants from Lagos, with proper equipment provided. Workshops concluded with monitors receiving about 40,000 to 50,000 naira. Agbi, however, is seen as greedy and self-serving, organizing inadequate workshops without basic materials.
In a swift reaction , Mr Goodnews Agbi described the allegations as untrue adding that those behind the purported scandals to rubbish him, will pay dearly for their sins. He said” The allegations are unfounded and untrue. I am not involved in such Contract scandals. I have been doing my work in accordance with the extant laws of Contracts. I don’t know where my enemies get their stories from but in all honesty, the stories are not true but to tarnish my hard earned integrity and Credibility”
