ANGERED by the poor performance of the consultants handling some key intervention projects of the Federal Ministry of Education (FME), its Minister of State, Nyesom Wike, Monday threatened to revoke the contracts.
In addition, the minister said he would not hesitate to hand them over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for prosecution. At a meeting he held in Abuja yesterday with the contractors and consultants handling various intervention projects under the basic education sub-sector, Wike berated the major consultants for their lackadaisical attitude in supervising some ongoing projects, which were intended to have been completed since late last year.
Some of the projects included the library projects for some federal unity colleges, millennium development projects and the girl-child education projects in some northern states. The minister's outburst followed divergent submissions by the consultants and the contractors over the state of some of the projects spread across the country.
Besides, the minister also had harsh words for some of the directors in the ministry, whose departments were directly connected with the projects, insisting that delay would affect the early completion of some of the projects.
"We are not happy with the consultants, particularly regarding the library projects being handled by UBEC, because the consultants have not done very well. I must say categorically that he has not done well and I don't want this to repeat itself," he said.
"If by the next meeting I see these lapses, we will have no choice but to drop the consultant. Nobody should take this work as a friendship job because it must be done well because this is where you earn your daily meal.
"People should not have the impression that nothing will happen in government job. Something will happen, and if we pay you and you are not doing anything, before you know it EFCC will be at the gate here and as you are coming out they will pick you up.
"If we give you a job, make sure you do the work, and if you don't have the capacity, make sure you use your money to engage more people to work for you, because this habit of your report not tallying with what is happening at the sites is not acceptable to us. The consultant must be able to represent us very well."
According to him government pays well to have quality jobs that would stand the test of time and it will not be accepted if the same people who are paid to provide quality jobs turn out to be the same people sabotaging the process.
