The government of Oyo State announced on Thursday that it will not hesitate to revoke school construction contracts handed to 22 contractors if they fail to fulfill their obligations.
The contracts for classroom restoration and building were awarded as part of the state’s UBEC/SUBEB Intervention Project, which ran from 2012 to 2018.
The move to terminate the contracts is in line with the mandate from the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) in Abuja, according to the Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB).
Dr Nureni Adeniran, the Executive Chairman of Oyo State SUBEB, told the twenty-two contractors in Ibadan that the contracts will be cancelled if the requirements of the contracts were not met.
He pointed out that several of the contracts, including those issued by the previous administration, had been dragging on since 2018, beyond the two-week deadline for borehole completion and the maximum 24-week deadline for model school completion.
In a statement released by the SUBEB media team, Dr. Adeniran stated that the board would not hesitate to impose appropriate fines on defaulting contractors who had failed to satisfy project requirements while working on UBEC/SUBEB projects in the state.
After the November 2021 deadline, he warned, the contractors could face charges from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as well as being banned by UBEC for future UBEC/SUBEB contracts nationally.
“The message here is clear. The job has taken too long. Your failure to deliver on the agreed dates is affecting the well-being of our children. We will reverse the contracts.
“We have issued several warnings. This is about the third time. We need to revoke the contracts and give them to those that will do the job. The guideline is clear and we are not going to compromise,” he said.
The SUBEB boss, who attended the meeting with the Board’s management staff, questioned why the contractors refused to provide results despite the government’s payment of a mobilization charge.
Despite the fact that their contracts were awarded by the previous administration, Adeniran emphasized that the Board did not revoke them in 2019 as part of a deliberate effort to enforce standards and ensure proper project implementation.
