By HARUNA Mohammed
THE Bauchi State House of Assembly Committee on Education has uncovered sharp practices and contracts racketeering at the Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, The ICIR can authoritatively report.
The committee in a report submitted to the Assembly during plenary on Tuesday said sharp practices and contracts racketeering such as “buying and selling of contracts against procurement laws, non-execution and or non-completion of some contracts more than a year after award as well as shoddy execution of some contracts” were uncovered at the Board.
According to the committee, contractors awarded contracts to construct and repair classroom blocks were found wanting noting that 80 percent of the newly constructed or renovated structures across the state requires urgent attention.
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In a 13 page report submitted to the Assembly and exclusively obtained by our reporter, the committee uncovered 252 uncompleted and six non-executed contracts awarded by SUBEB.
The report showed that committee also uncovered sub-standards execution of hand pump boreholes at Gadda Primary School, Alkaleri Local Government Area, Dinchi Primary School and JSS Fagam in Dambam Local Government Area and Wahu Primary School, Zoro and Wuro Bokki Primary School in Darazo Local Government Area.
The committee in the report recommended that the contractors who executed shoddy jobs should not be paid until they corrected all the defects associated with the contracts execution.
It also recommended that all companies and contractors that executed substandard projects “to the detriment of the people of Bauchi State should be blacklisted, while investigation should be carried out on the alleged negligence of SUBEB engineers who were supposed to supervise the projects.
While presenting the report to the House, the Committee recommended that the Assembly should as a matter of urgency summon the SUBEB Chairman, and other officials to appear before it on July 14, to offer explanations on the alleged shoddy deals and contracts racketeering.
Other recommendations made by the Committee include; “SUBEB should be conducting quarterly inspection of all the newly constructed or renovated structures across the state with a view to protecting their standard and durability.
It recommended that the executive arm of government should be advised to construct fencing walls in schools that are located in urban areas in order to provide security required for effective teaching and learning while SUBEB should henceforth auction the zinc, woods, doors and windows removed from renovated classrooms to the people of the host communities.”
The committee also agreed that monitoring and evaluation and constant oversight “are the key to end the problems; thus the House Committee on education will swing to action.”
The report also recommended that all members of the Assembly should monitor all contracts being executed in their constituencies and be reporting to the House Committee on education.
This report was originally published by WIKKITIMES