The project is with budget code 2018ZIP320 under the FGN Constituency Project budget and executed by FRIN, who contracted it to XPL Solution Services Limited.
The Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), an anti-corruption civil society organisation has dragged the Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) in Ibadan to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a perceived case of corruption amounting to over N52million on Idofian – Igbaja road.
This was contained in statement signed by Tewogbola Kazeem Kajogbola, Director, Investigation and Public Petition (Kwara South), ENetSuD, noting that the project entitled "Biological Control and Asphalting of Idofian – Igbaja road in Kwara State" was funded by the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) in year 2018.
The project is with budget code 2018ZIP320 under the FGN Constituency Project budget and executed by FRIN, who contracted it to XPL Solution Services Limited.
"In year 2018, a sum of One Hundred and Seventy Million Naira (₦170,000,000) was appropriated for the project. However, the actual contract sum was One Hundred and Eight Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty-Four Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Three Naira (₦108,754,863), according to the documents provided to ENetSuD by FRIN following our Freedom of Information (FOI) request during our project tracking exercise.
"During the measurement and evaluation of the project by the Bill of Engineering Measurement and Evaluation (BEME) provided to ENetSuD by FRIN, it was found that the approved length of the road and thickness of the asphalt are 1.2 km and 40 mm respectively, but the contractor only executed 854 m and 26.25 mm respectively. Moreover, about 9,505m of asphalt was approved to be used for the asphalting work but only 6,747m was measured on site as used by the contractor.
"ENetSuD told EFCC that a sum of Forty-Six Million, Seven Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand, Three Hundred and Eighty-Eight Naira (₦46,723,388) was spent on the Civil Engineering Works of the project instead of Ninety-Nine Million, Ninety-Four Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Three Naira (₦99,094,863) approved for the works in the BEME."
"ENetSuD concluded that a sum of Fifty-Two Million, Three Hundred and Seventy-One Thousand, Four Hundred and Seventy-Five Naira (₦52,371,475) was not spent on the project by the contractor out of the contract sum, assuming the unspent amount under Bill 1 (Preliminaries / Project management and services) was not considered as the items under this could not be measured," the statement added.
Follow the Sahara Reporters channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFClvtH5JM6SSsP7M2Y