In a move aimed at raising the standard of projects in Lagos State, the legislature is to work with the office of the state auditor-general to ensure that contractors who compromise expected standard in project execution refund part of contract sum to the state government.
Moshood Oshun, chairman, Lagos State House of Assembly Committee on Public Accounts, said this while responding to a question bordering on the quality of project execution in the state, admitting that a few contractors had been found to have compromised the quality of works handled by them.
“We are working with the executive and the auditors in the state to ensure that contractors who failed to the standard of work expected are made to refund to the government part of the contract sum,” Oshun said, Wednesday, at a retreat for auditors in the state with the theme “promoting quality audit service in a recession.”
The legislator, however, specifically tasked auditors in the state public service to see themselves as critical stakeholders in the execution of the N813 billion 2017 budget recently proposed by the state government. He stated that if the budget is to impact on the people as envisaged by the government, auditors whose responsibility it is to monitor the performance of the budget must shun compromise in their professional assessment of what has been executed.
“If there is no watchdog to ensure that money budget for a particular project is spent on that project, then the budget as proposed won’t perform, Moshood, assuring that the legislature would lend its full support to the auditors to carry out their tasks.
Helen Deile, the state auditor-general said the auditors were being trained to put them in a better pedestal to deliver quality audit service.
“Projects embarked on by the state are enormous in the areas of infrastructure, education, housing, health and in other sectors. It has become imperative for audit to re-strategize and come up with an all-encompassing quality audit service and reports that will enhance quality decision making by the executive,” said Deile.
