The Presidency, through the Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) on Tuesday visited the site of the Ojutu Bridge Project in Ilobu, Orolu Local Government of Osun.
The visit was to inspect and accertain the level of work done on the estimated N538, 895,868 ongoing bridge project.
The FRC team, led by Mr Hyacinth Abutu, arrived in Osogbo and was taken to the site of the project by the Federal Controller of Works for Osun, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Kehinde Olawale.
Mr Olawale explained to the FRC team that the project was just 41% completed and that the delay in completion was due to lack of adequate budgetary allocation.
He said the bridge would serve the people plying Ogbomosho-Osogbo Road.
He said it was awarded to Preconsmith Construction Limited in March 2017, but had been dragging due to lack of funds from the government to complete it.
He said so far, N202, 861, 823 had been paid to the contractor for the 45-metre bridge and that an interim statement had been sent to the ministry in Abuja for funds to complete it.
He said onced money was made available, beams would be cast on the bridge and work would be completed, latest by August.
Abutu, who is an Assistant Director in the Directorate of Policy and Standard, after inspecting the level of work done on the bridge, said the work done so far was good and of good quality.
“The quality of work undertaken by the contractor is very good from our assessment and the percentage of work they claimed to have completed equally tallies with what is on the ground.
“Also from our interaction with those handling the project, we discover that the major impediment of the project is lack of funding.
” From here, we are going to make a strong recommendation to the government to increase the funding for the project in order to serve the purpose for which it was intended,” he said.
While speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) earlier, he explained that his team was going on federal projects inspection across the South-West in order to know how government revenue was being used for projects and also see the level of completion of such projects.
He said the execrcise started from Ekiti on Monday and would be going to Oyo, after inspecting the projects in Osun. (NAN)
