The Cross River Basin Development Authority (CRBDA) Wednesday decried continuous vandalisation of its projects in communities within its catchment areas by hoodlums.
It urged community leaders to protect and take ownership of such projects so as to stop theft of the project’s vital components.
In a chat with journalists in Calabar, CRBDA managing director, Bassey Nkposong, said failure by communities to own projects like boreholes sited in their areas led to the incessant vandalisation, thereby causing the vision for such projects to be unrealisable.
He said; “The federal government, through our requests, following appeals from some communities, approved projects to be sited in communities across Cross River and Akwa Ibom states which the Cross River Basin Development Authority covers.
“Regrettably, as soon as those projects are completed, vital components are removed and in some instances, the contractor is still on site working when some components are vandalised and stolen.
“This leaves the contractor confused because each project has a fixed cost and replacement of stolen component could become difficult to a contractor, and in some cases only fifty percent of the sum is released owing to paucity of funds. So, getting funds to replace vandalised projects becomes a herculean task because the contingencies are never enough to carter for those happenings.”
On allegation of payment to fake contractors as insinuated in some quarters, he described it as untrue; noting that the authority does not embark on projects without budgetary provisions which he explained is domiciled in the Central Bank of Nigeria.
He said; “This is an agency of the federal government whose budgetary allocation is domiciled with the Central Bank of Nigeria. No payment to any contractor for any job can be made without pepper verification of the standing of the said contractor in terms of his documents and other necessary requirements.”
