Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has said that the Federal Government was promoting corruption whenever it allows paltry sums of money, in its yearly budget for a project, instead of the entire money required to complete such projects within the agreed time. Wike spoke at the inauguration of the GRA Junction Flyover project that was performed by Mike Agbedor Ozekhome, SAN, weekend in Port Harcourt, according to a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kelvin Ebiri. He said: “You know, I don’t like the word variation. It is not in my dictionary. That is where you see corruption. That is why when you see federal government budget; how can you award a job of N60billion, then in the budget of the year, you put N2billion.
“What kind of contract is that? Why will there not be variation. That job will last in the next ten years and that is the problem we have in our contract execution.” The governor explained that in such situations, the contract value becomes affected by inflation and there is a likelihood of adjustment of the items, which eventually breeds corruption. He pointed out that such culture is not encouraged in Rivers State under his administration and there is no rationale for him to spend four years, for example doing a particular project. “Now, if you’re putting N2 billion each year, that means in ten years time, it’s N20 billion.
So you cannot finish the project in 20 years. And then, looking at the inflation trend, every year, the contractor will put variation. Why? Because the price of things have gone up. So, they’ll put variation and at the end of the day, the job will not be N60 billion. It will go to N80 billion. But here, Julius Berger cannot tell us that because we have already given them 70 percent upfront. So, they cannot come and tell me variation, no. By giving you 70 percent, we expect you to work up to 80 or 90 percent.”
