Lagos Assembly seeks standard operation procedures for road contract

Lagos State House of Assembly has urged the Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, through the office of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Works, to prepare regulations outlining Standards Operation Procedures (SOP) for road contract administration in the state.

The Assembly also directed that the regulations should be forwarded to it in line with Section 1 of the regulations approval law. The motion was moved by Chairman, House Committee on Works and Infrastructure, Abiodun Tobun, at plenary yesterday.He said all the observations were noticed during the oversight functions of his committee.

The lawmakers also said that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu should direct the Commissioner for Finance to ensure that contractors are not paid mobilisation fee unless Right of Way (RoW) is delivered and the contractor ready to work.

The House noted that one of the cardinal programmes of Sanwo-Olu’s administration, which it looks forward to, should be the provision of world-class infrastructural facilities to support the growing population.

The lawmakers said they expected Sanwo-Olu’s programme to serve as the development driver of a vision of being Africa’s model smart city, a global and financial hub, which is a fundamental ingredient for economic growth and development.

The Assembly, which lamented the abandonment of many road projects in the state, said the issue of substandard road construction and rehabilitation should be blamed on absence of approved regulations specifying standard operating procedures required in road project administration, and that lack of delivery of right of way before payment of mobilisation fee was responsible for many cases of abandoned projects in the state.

The House further cautioned the government on the need to judiciously manage the scarce resources of the state, saying: “We should also look at better ways to get things done.”