Delta government tasks engineers on quality roads

To avoid delivering substandard roads, civil engineers have been advised to adhere to the new trends and ethics of their profession.

The State Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, who stated this at a retreat organised for civil engineers in the State’s Ministry of Works in Warri, said the performance of the engineers are key to the success of the Okowa administration.

Ukah called on the engineers to be proud of the achievements of the Okowa administration, saying they do not need to belong to a particular political party to do the right thing.

For his part, the state Commissioner for Works, Chief James Augoye, emphasized that the era of compromise on road construction is over,
pointing out that the success of the Okowa administration  depends on the performance of the engineers.

Chief Augoye said, as from October superintending engineers will be held accountable to shoddy jobs, adding that it is shameful that roads just constructed failed months after being commissioned.

He assured the engineers of the Governor’s support as well as his protection when under pressure from a contractor to compromise standard.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Delta State House Assembly Committee on Works, Evans Iwhurie has pledged to work with the Works ministry to expose mischief makers who specialised in photoshop pictures of bad roads from other states and place them on social media as roads constructed by the Okowa administration.

Iwhurie said the Okowa administration has invested heavily to provide basic infrastructure such as roads and would not tolerate any propagandist actions to tarnish his image.

The house committee on works chairman noted that the committee would not rest on it oars in carrying out its oversight functions on the works ministry to ensure that Deltans get qualitative roads.

While commending the ministry for actively supporting the state government in rehabilitating failed Federal Government roads, Iwhurie sued for continued cooperation of the staff of the ministry.

He pledged that the committee would support the works ministry to overcome challenges facing it and directed that all contractors must be on site during inspection exercises.

Earlier, while welcoming the House committee chairman and members, the commissioner for Works Chief James Augoye assured that the ministry is ready to cooperate with them to achieve the aim of setting up the committee.

Chief Augoye said the state government has done a lot at improving service delivery of the ministry as witnessed in the just concluded two day retreat held in warri for civil engineers and that of Deltans as seen in the even distribution of projects in the twenty five local government areas of the state.

The Acting permanent secretary of ministry of works, Fred Edafioghor, an engineer has expressed confidence on the house committee members saying the relationship between them and the ministry would forge a new map towards giving Deltans the best.