Makinde mobilises SDG contractors back to site

• Set to introduce community engagement initiative to safeguard projects

Oyo State Governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, has approved the mobilisation of contractors handling different projects for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Office back to site, charging them to ensure that they deliver the projects to specification and time.

This was as the SDG Office has announced its readiness to introduce a community engagement initiative that will see community leaders, security agencies and government work together to safeguard government projects in localities.

Governor Makinde made these known on Monday through his Senior Special Assistant on SDG, Mr Kunle Yusuff, during a meeting with the SDG contractors handling school renovation, furniture supply and other projects across the state, held at the Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan.

According to Yusuff, Makinde had demonstrated his commitment to the welfare of the people by giving an approval to mobilise contractors back to site without scrutiny rigmarole, despite the fact that they were enlisted by the immediate past administration.

He added that the decision followed the governor’s earlier approval to embark on contract evaluation, which led to contractors tell him their challenges, noting that the governor gave approval for the contractors to access their money but with a mandate to deliver on the projects before the end of October.

He stated that SDG Office will soon introduce a community engagement initiative to prevent vandalism of government projects, noting that the SDG Office would bring a lot of innovations to the handling of the Office’s projects such as ensuring a mutual understanding between the Office, contractors and bankers.

Yusuff stated that vandalism of government projects would no longer be condoned, as the Chief Security Officer to Makinde expressed the readiness of security agencies to partner with the SDG Office and contractors to prevent vandalism of projects.

“If you have been following this government, you will see that Makinde has placed emphasis on welfare. If he had wanted to wield his powers, he would have said that since the contractors got the projects during the last administration, they should be subjected to months of scrutiny and investigations. Instead, he has said that as long as you do quality jobs and deliver within specified periods, there is no need for rigmarole on scrutiny.

“No matter the project you are handling, we expect you to execute, complete and hand over the project a week before the end of October 2019.

“Now that government has approved that you are allowed to access your funds, we expect you to deliver. Do your jobs well and you will be part of history, because SDG projects are global and are funded by the United Nations with counterpart funding from the state government,” Yusuff said.

Also speaking, the project consultant warned contractors not to do shoddy jobs in the name of trying to meet time specification, stating that anyone who could not meet the dateline should indicate, because the quality of the jobs is important.