Weeks after Dataphyte’s investigation on abandoned Teachers’ quarters in Ebonyi state, work has recommenced on one of the project sites.
Dataphyte gathered that project work is being expedited after revelations of the investigation showed that for many months Uwana Comprehensive School Teachers’ Quarters suffered neglect with bushes taking over the building. According to the principal of the school, Orji Orji, workers have been remobilised to the site for the continuation of the Teachers’ Quarters project.
Pictures of works as at January 6th at Uwana Comprehensive School
Works ongoing at the Unwana Teachers’ Quarters
Full coverage of the roof ongoing
The Executive Secretary, Bureau of Public Procurement, Uzoma Betty, attempted to explain why contracts were given to organisations that were tagged as inactive on the Corporate Affairs Commission website. She explained that during the award of the project, BPP, through regulation of government, considered that Small and Medium Scale Enterprises be given contracts with waivers as a way to motivate and ’empower’ them to get up stronger from COVID-19.
Checks by Dataphyte on the Bureau of Public Procurement (Ebonyi state) guidelines showed that bidding organizations were allowed to apply as Joint Ventures, so as to help them meet the financial requirements of applying for a contract of Ten Million and above. However, the guideline did not answer questions about waivers on documentation requirements such as Annual Returns, which is the reason why the companies were marked as “inactive” by the Corporate Affairs Commission.
Although the Executive Secretary said that contractors were not mobilized till 2020, and special consideration was given to SMEs impacted by Covid 19, the companies that were flagged have been in default for at least two years which means they had not paid taxes since at least 2019, before Covid hit. By law, these companies should have been exempted.
The Executive Secretary blamed non-existent companies discovered by Dataphyte’s investigation on spelling errors on the Ebonyi Bureau of Public Procurement’s website. She stated that the Bureau employs its cleaner for data input and this is the reason for the mistakes.
She also explained that in the case of the Umunwagwu Comprehensive School Teachers’ Quarters project it had been exchanged for Nwofe Comprehensive School teachers’ quarters based on needs assessment.