Abdulrazaq proposes ‘social audit’ for Kwara projects

AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, governor of Kwara state, has proposed a social auditing process — the first in Nigeria — that allows civic groups and communities to monitor government projects to ensure that quality jobs are done.

In a zoom meeting with Abdullateef Alagbonsi, coordinator of the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENETSUD), AbdulRazaq said he made the proposal to reassure the people of Kwara that he has nothing to hide.

The governor called for confidence building between government and civic groups, saying engagements by civic groups should be devoid of name-calling, preconceived notions, or a mindset that sees every government official as dishonest.

He said such mindsets often widen the gap between the two sides which he observed must always work together for development to occur.

“We in this administration have absolutely nothing to hide. I often tell people that I already have whatever some persons may be looking for in public office. I have those things before getting into government; so I am not going into government to make money,” he said.

“What I am getting at is that the government and the civil society need to build confidence. You shouldn’t see us as thieves. If you see us as thieves we will lock up and say fine you already have a premeditated mindset or position and (you have) decided that we have stolen money and no matter what we do or say you are coming to paint us with that brush.

“That is why I would lock up to say No. But if you have an open mind to say let’s build confidence, let’s try A, B, C and then go ahead and engage and work together and find solutions to some things, then we can move forward.

“Like right now, we awarded contracts for 31 schools; we have not finished paying the contractors, averagely we have paid between 50 and 70 percent, now this is the time that our own M&E are moving in to monitor the projects. I have received certificates that they are due for their next payment and even the House of Assembly has gone to inspect some of these projects.

“I would like a case where before we pay them, we would ask civil societies like yours to come in to monitor these projects; we can say fine these are the bills of quantity for this project, go through them, inspect the projects and see where there are shortcomings before we actually pay the contractors for the next stage to go on. It would be hard for anyone to do substandard work if we have some sort of social auditing from the community or from CSO who would say the work is good or bad. That way the collusion or abnormal issuance of certificates by some officials will disappear.

“I am also looking forward to such engagement on the (26) roads we are doing, which are due for final payment. I am deliberately withholding because I do not want to sign off and somebody would say they have chopped money. We want to make sure that contractors do their job well so that nobody will accuse me of anything. That is the sort of engagement that would initially build understanding between both parties (government and CSOs). If you come in as CSO at such a stage where money has not been fully paid, you would not say the government was supposed to spend N30,000,000 but it spent N50,000,000 and the contractor has gone off. I sign off based on documents sent to me from the ministries, but if I have only paid 50% to the contractor and somebody blows alarm then, I would not pay until the work is corrected and the proper things are done.”

AbdulRazaq, for a start of the innovative decision, asked the civic group to immediately nominate between three and four of the ongoing school or road projects which they would monitor and issue independent reports upon which further payments to contractors would be based.

He said the government would set up a committee to interface with the civic group on how to proceed with the social auditing, pledging to offer them the necessary support to ensure that quality jobs are delivered and avoid people blaming him (the governor) for poor jobs.