First Anniversary: Bauchi Gov. awards N45 billion projects within the period

The Bauchi State Budget Monitoring and Public Procurement Agency says the administration of Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed has awarded projects in critical sectors of the economy worth over N45 billion within the first year of the administration.

Speaking with Government House correspondents on the one year anniversary of the governor, the Chairman of the Agency, Engineer Joshua Sanga, said that the over seventy projects awarded followed due process and were issued with certificate of no objection.

Engineer Joshua Sanga pointed out that the agency is fully involved in the award of  the projects and it will monitor them to ensure their execution in line with the procurement act.

According to him, the state has made a lot of progress and compliance in the execution of projects across the state and in all the identified sectors.

"Ideally, each and every project in the excess of one million naira in the state ought to come to this office before even being awarded, we have to check the price, we have to check the award process, the procurement process, that the right contractor was given the job or not and to ensure that the job is done."

"Since the advent of this administration, we have a record of over seventy contracts awarded, valued at about Forty Five billion Naira and this is unprecedented as there is no government that came between ten to eleven months that awarded a contact of such amount in a short time."

"His Excellency, the Governor needs to be highly commended on that and Bauchi people need to appreciate the gesture, if you look round Bauchi, you will see new projects of over five hundred classrooms built or renovated, you look at the roads on going, there are a lot of projects awarded in this administration and the governor is a very workaholic person, he ensures that he keeps us on our toes to ensure that jobs awarded are being done as the law permits on us and agreed by the contractors, so the governor is doing alot of projects and we are deeply involved in the award and the execution of such projects."

The Chairman said that the mandate of the agency is specifically in the area of procurement of government projects, ensure that money budgeted for the execution of projects is judiciously used and to ensure the value for money is being driven from each and every project awarded by the government.

"Seventy to eighty percent of government money apart from paying of salaries goes to execution of projects, so the role of this office is price intelligence, we have to check prices to know weather its okay or we add or subtract where necessary to make sure there is value for every single Kobo. The other role of the office is also monitoring, once a contract is awarded and the job is being executed, its the role of this office to at least go out and check whether the job is done rightly. That is a major role of this office, budget monitoring, price intelligence and procurement of government projects."

He said that to ensure execution of projects in line with international best practices, Governor Bala Mohammed has engaged the services of Engineer Emeka Eze, a former engineer who was Director General in the Bureau  of Public Procurement to work out modalities of revamping the agency.

"The governor is about to celebrate his one year in office, the Akuyam road is about forty five percent completion, Yalwan Duguri to Burga is a very big project, I was there just last week and it's thirty percent, NITEL and Raji quarters is one hundred percent completed, even Hospital road. Azare and Tafawa Balewa roads are hundred percent, Sabon Kaura is seventy percent completed, a lot of roads even recently, have been awarded, like the Hajj Camp which is being constructed so that Muslim pilgrims will have a place to stay during Hajj activities."

"And a lot of hospitals have been renovated. When you look at the blocks of classrooms, as I say, over five hundred have been newly built and others renovated."

"Even water projects, over seven hundred boreholes have been awarded through partnership with UNICEF and RUWASA. And still with the backing of the State Government, a lot of communities now have water to drink."

"So the projects are going on very well, even some are also being awarded as at now, especially with the coming of this COVID-19. A lot of attention had been turned to the health sectors but not totally because we don't want other sectors to suffer."

Engineer Joshua Sanga who noted that being one of the key components of the State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability Programs (SFTAS), the agency has worked very hard with other relevant MDAs to achieve the desired objectives. He said that it has qualified the state to access the grants worth billions of naira recently for the years of 2018 and 2019.

The Chairman, while congratulating Gov. Bala Mohammed for the remarkable achievements in the last one year, assured him of the total support of the agency for the success of his administration.

"We pray he will continue with  the execution of developmental projects, the Governor has been giving us a free hand and we pray he continues to give us a free hand to operate as an independent office, and we promise not to fail him or disappoint him, we will make sure people of Bauchi benefit from each and every Kobo budgeted for projects and to the glory of God."