Uncompleted projects: Sanction erring contractors, FRC tells MDAs

The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) on Friday advised Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) to sanction contractors who failed to complete projects awarded to them.

The leader of the commission’s South-west monitoring and evaluation team, Mr. Sule Unekwuojo, gave the advice during the verification of selected projects at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos state.

“We have inspected more than 20 projects all the way from Ekiti, Osogbo, Ibadan and Lagos, where we concentrated on some at the Neuropsychiatric Hospital.

“We observed that the projects on ground in some states did not corroborate with the money released for the execution of the projects. Such contractors need to be brought to book and necessary punishment meted out in form of sanctions and refunds of government money not properly utilised for the intended purpose,” he said.

Unekwuojo said MDAs should not be afraid to wield the big stick, whenever a contractor was not performing or found wanting, adding that they should also prioritise the procurement of items to specifically match the released funds against what was originally budgeted.

Also speaking, the hospital’s chief medical director (CMD), Oluyemi Ogun, said the hospital was mainly dependent on money released by the federal government.

“Not much money is released to us and if we do not spend prudently the limited resources we have, the hospital will not be as presentable as it is. We do not make much from our Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) and the little we make is mostly used in procuring basic items needed for running the offices.

“The reason we have been able to rehabilitate the wards and construct the Emergency Unit is because there has been an improvement in monies released in 2020,” he said.

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