By Njide Ezeonyejiaku
The Anambra State Universal Basic Education Board, ASUBEB in conjunction with the Universal Basic Education Board, UBEC have conducted the second phase of contract awards to qualified contractors whose bids scaled through the technical terms and conditions provided by the Public Procurement Act and law of Nigeria.
The exercise comprising the financial bid opening for 2019, 2020 and 2021 UBEC Matching Grants Projects for Junior Secondary and Primary Schools in Anambra State following the payment of the State counterpart fund by Governor Chukwuma Soludo.
Speaking to the contractors at the Utility hall of ASUBEB Headquarters, Awka, the Executive Chairman, ASUBEB, Dr. Vera Nkiru Nwadinobi congratulated the contractors whom she described as those who have successfully proposed solutions to delivering the projects but noted that they would only win the contract after the evaluation of their technical and financial bids to select the best offers known as the lowest responsive evaluated bid.
According to Dr. Nwadinobi, the Board shall be fair, just, accountable, and transparent without deviating from the rules to favour any contractor.
“We are going to be prudent to ensure that the best hands are selected to ensure timely completion and quality delivery of projects”, Dr. Nwadinobi affirms.
While charging the contractors that would be selected after the evaluation, the ASUBEB boss commended Mr. Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo for ensuring the adoption of due process in the selection of the contractors to execute the projects.
She also appreciated the State Bureau of Public Procurement, the ICPC, the EFCC, and other anti-corruption Agencies as well as the State House of Assembly, the Ministry of Education, Office of the Attorney General, and Accountant General of Anambra State, with the SSG Office for their cooperation in executing the exercise.
Earlier, the Director, Planning, Research, and Statistics/Procurement Department, Dr. Uchenna Ezeani in an opening remark assured of the transparency of the process with the manner the bid opening and the subsequent financial bid opening were conducted, adding that ASUBEB as the domiciled Agency for the fund would oversee the execution of the projects for the benefit of the children in the basic schools in the State.
Contributing, the Anambra State Commissioner, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Mr Amefula Agwu observed that the exercise was going on transparently but expressed concern that the issues normally crop up after the bids, hence the Commission’s insistence on seeing the raw documents in order to compare notes when complaints trickle in.
He urged the State government to endeavour to clear the remaining outstanding years of 2022, 2023 and the current 2024 counterpart funds for the benefit of the children.
Commenting on the exercise, the ASUBEB Secretary, Mrs Ebele Mgbemena paid glowing tribute to Governor Soludo for keeping his words in his promise to provide a better learning environment for the children with the new toilets, borehole, new structures, fencing and renovations that will spring up in many schools from the the exercise.
In their respective contributions, the ASUBEB Permanent Member I, Mrs Ify Anatune; the Member II, Dr. Kay Chukwura; and the Member III, Lady Theresa Azodo observed that the positive impact the projects would bring to the basic schools will be massive, including white boards, new classroom blocks, outdoor and indoor play toys, among others, describing the Governor as the only one that has made a bold step in rehabilitating the state basic schools, and is improving the welfare of the teachers and other civil servants in the State, urging him to keep up the tempo to avoid any backlog.
On their part, the contractors, including Mr. Hilary Okafor of the GoGrow Global Resources, Mr Chidi Mbaogalanya of Great Triple CGC Services, and Mr Simon Okafor of BET Enterprises commended the visible transparency of the process and promised to deliver excellent jobs.
