ARITHMETIC DOES NOT LIE, ENetSuD REPLIES KWARA COMMISSIONER FOR WORKS

The Commissioner has failed to respond to the issues raised by ENetSuD but only concentrated on the addition of asphalt to the project with an addition of ₦265,412,446.50 (which would not have been so if the Ministry under his watch had been meticulous enough to re-calculate the inherited BEME). To make the issue clearer to members of the public (which we owe further explanations), we will like to state that the Ministry under the watch of the Commissioner failed to do a thorough calculation of the BEME of the project inherited from the same Ministry under the watch of the past administration. It is correct to state that the present administration only added money for the asphalt (₦265,412,446.50) without subjecting the inherited BEME to careful arithmetic in the public interest, an action that makes it to be an accomplice in this contract mess. Using the approved harmonised BEME provided to us by the KWSG, we will like to make the crosschecking of the arithmetic simple for the members of the public by providing the amount in each of the items in Bills 3 and 4.

In Bill 1, which is a general provision, the Ministry got ₦94,550,000 as the sum. Our recalculation shows that this amount is correct, and thus, we do not have any concern on Bill 1 since it is correct. In Bill 2 that provides for the Earthworks, the Ministry got the sum of ₦451,369,500. Our re-calculation shows that the correct sum is ₦457,444,500, which is higher than the Ministry’s own.

In the Bill 3 that provides for culverts and concrete drain, twenty-three (23) items were priced after multiplying the quantities and the rates, and the amounts quoted were as follow: (1) ₦977,821 (2) ₦1,200,000 (3) ₦3,402,000 (4) ₦1,674,000 (5) ₦5,263,500 (6) ₦3,112,725 (7) ₦470,640 (8) ₦1,844,700 (9) ₦3,088,762 (10) ₦2,316,571:50 (11) ₦4,138,750 (12) ₦9,253,400 (13) ₦2,520,000 (14) ₦66,000,000 (15) ₦16,500,000 (16) ₦26,100,000 (17) ₦56,000,000 (18) ₦15,750,000 (19) ₦2,400,000 (20) ₦3,000,000 (21) ₦30,000,000 (22) ₦10,000,000 and (23) ₦4,000,000. By our very simple arithmetic, the sum of the amounts for all these 23 items in Bill 3 is ₦269,012,869.5. How the Ministry of Works arrived at ₦342,498,608.50 is beyond our comprehension and needs further explanation from the Commissioner and/or relevant authority in his Ministry. This indicated that the total amount for Bill 3 was inflated by ₦73,485,739.

In Bill 4 that provides for the Roadworks (including the asphalt negotiated by the present administration of AbdulRahman under the watch of Engr. Rotimi), fourteen (14) items were priced after multiplying the quantities and the rates, and the amounts quoted were as follow: (1) ₦14,850,000 (2) ₦24,900,000 (3) ₦55,430,000 (4) ₦24,900,000 (5) ₦55,430,000 (6) ₦29,580,000 (7) ₦36,750,000 (8) ₦18,750,000 (9) ₦38,850,000 (10) ₦15,937,500 (11) ₦9,975,000 (12) ₦75,075,000 (13) ₦292,318,875 and (14) ₦575,496,000. By our very simple arithmetic, the sum of the amounts for all these 14 items in Bill 4 is ₦1,268,242,375. How the Ministry of Works arrived at ₦1,884,143,437.50 is also beyond our comprehension and needs further explanation from the Commissioner and/or relevant authority in his Ministry. This is equivalent to the inflation of Bill 4 by ₦615,901,062.5.

When we added the sum for Bills 1-4, we got ₦2,089,249,744:5 as the total whereas the Ministry got ₦2,772,561,564 in the approved BEME. This represents the inflation of Bills 1-4 by ₦683,311,802. ENetSuD went further to determine the contingency fee by using the same 4.689% of the sum of Bills 1-4 that the Ministry earlier used, but with our re-calculated sum for Bills 1-4 (₦2,089,249,744:5). By our re-calculation, the correct amount for the contingency fee is ₦97,967,112:91 instead of the ₦130,008,320:33 written in the BEME by the Ministry.