Towards making an appropriate recommendation to the Edo State House of Assembly, its Standing Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs told the Chairman of Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area, Hon. (Mrs.) Itohan Osahon to submit relevant documents relating to projects executed by her administration to it.

The chairman of the Committee, Hon. Etin Osa Ogbewi gave the directive when the committee rounded-off its over-sight function of inspecting the projects in the area.

He assured the council boss that the inspection tour was not to witch-hunt anybody but an oversight function of the committee aimed at ensuring quality service delivery to the people in Edo State.

Dissatisfied with the non-availability of some relevant documents on projects executed, Hon. Ogbewi said such information was vital for the committee to reach an unbiased conclusion.

Though the committee commended the local government chairman for a job well done on some of the projects executed, it also discovered what it described as shocking revelations in other projects sites visited.

At the commencement of the inspection at the Secretariat, the council chairman, Hon. (Mrs.) Itohan Osahon conducted the committee members round the road constructed within the council Secretariat at the cost of N55million as well as the completed staff canteen which gulped N4 million but not being utilized.

Also inspected was the office extension block still within the secretariat completed at the cost of about N9 million and furnished in addition to other offices.

The displeasure of the committee members at the quality of work done by the contractors that handled the projects as well as their cost implications led a member of the committee, Hon. Johnson
Oghuma to query the actual market price of a change over switch that the council claimed to have installed at the cost of N200,000:0 but the council’s electrical Engineer, Mr. Ovbiosa Joshua could not provide an answer.

At Ivbiyeneva Primary School one, Two and Three, where six blocks of classrooms were claimed to have been renovated at the sum of about N6 million for each by the council, the Committee discovered that four blocks of classrooms were actually renovated.

The council boss took the lawmakers to the flood control site at Iso lane, off Sokponba Road where she explained that the contract had been terminated due to incompetence exhibited by the contractor after payment of the 25 percent mobilization fee of N10 million.

Hon. Ogbewi frowned at what he described as wastage of funds, stressing that the shoddy job done by the contractor was not commensurate with the fund it had collected and this was confirmed by the complains of the residents in the area that their houses were submerged whenever it rained.

The committee chairman, however, commended Hon. (Mrs.) Osahon for the quality of work done at the 10 detachment of one bedroom flat built and commissioned by the council. The concrete pavement of failed portions and rehabilitation of Dumez road, Benin City as well as the perimeter fencing of the traditional ground in the area.

Another member of the committee, Hon. Uwamose Amadasun, advised the council boss to carefully verify submission by council officials before taking decisions in order to avoid making mistakes.