Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesome Wike, has ordered the sacking of the consultant supervising the construction of the Girl Child Secondary School in Ebonyi State.
He also ordered that the contractor handling the project be handed over to the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission for investigation and prosecution.
Wike stated this on Tuesday in Abuja at a meeting with consultants and contractors handling projects in Federal Government schools.
Wike, who refused to name neither the consultant nor the contractor expressed his displeasure over what he described as “outright fraud”.
He said, “Yesterday, I was in Ebonyi State. The consultant of the Girl Child School sent certificates for payment to Universal Basic Education Commission asking that we should pay the contractor that he has done up to 70, 80 per cent of the job.
“When I went there yesterday with the governor, it was bush everywhere, nobody was on site.
“The contractor knows this and that is why he is not here today.
“Refer this matter to ICPC, this is fraud, we must collect our money and also ask the consultant why he connived with the contractor to deceive us.”
The minister said government was suffering in the hands of saboteurs, who were frustrating its efforts using various schemes.
He warned procurements and account/ finance officers against holding on to funds belonging to contractors who were performing in accordance with their contractual agreements.
Earlier, the minister, who met with officials of State Universal Basic Education Commissions, promised that government would deal with those conniving with marketers to sell books meant to be distributed free to children.
He assured that those already caught in Minna, Niger State would be used as scapegoats to serve as deterrents to others.
Wike said a new model of book distribution has been adopted to stem the trend.
According to him, from now on security agencies will be involved as they will also have records of books supplied and distributed in each state.
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Source : punchng[dot]com
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