NDDC: Obaseki advises against sub-standard road construction

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has advised the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to always emphasise quality in its road construction projects in the state.
Obaseki gave the advice on Thursday, when he received the report of the state government-inaugurated technical committee to review road projects executed by NDDC in the state.
The governor said he was not happy with the quality of work on some NDDC road projects in the state which the committee report indicated were below required road standards.
The report also indicated that only 101 roads of the 248 roads awarded by the commission had been executed.
It said that while work has yet to commence on 86 others, many of the road projects were reported to have been abandoned.
Obaseki urged intervention institutions like NDDC to ensure that only tested and trustworthy contractors are selected to handle road projects.
According to him, NDDC cannot be an appellation for substandard work, and the quality of their projects should improve.
‘’We have to, from now on, be involved in their projects and in the selection of contractors to work in our state.
‘’We want to understand why inferior materials are used for an NDDC project; and from now on, we want to insist that the same quality of materials we use on our roads are the same NDDC contractors who operate in the state must use.
‘’We have problems with the designs of their roads as reported by the committee; how can we design roads in a rain forest to have very narrow drains and expect that those roads will last?
‘’Even from the design stage, we want to be involved’’, he said.
He commended the committee for a job well done, and said that all contracts awarded by NDDC in the state would be evaluated.
‘’We will also like to interrogate all the contractors that have worked with us, we are imploring that NDDC gives the required cooperation,’’ he said.
Earlier, the chairman of the committee, Mr Erasmus Osahon, an engineer, said that NDDC started awarding road projects in the state in 2004.
Osahon said that the job of the committee was to ascertain the total number of roads, determine stage of accomplishment, the quality of work done, and make appropriate recommendation on the roads executed by NDDC in the state.
He noted that the review of road projects, prompt payment of contractors and training of engineers would stem the rate of abandonment of road projects.
Osahon also recommended that the commission should liaise with the state ministry of works to avoid duplication of projects and double expenditure.
The chairman suggested that the governor should take advantage of the regional funding usually made available by NDDC as a major source of funds for projects in the state.