A Dataphyte review of the Osun state open Contracting portal has shown that the state’s Road Maintenance Agency, charged with road repairs and maintenance in the state, spent more money on purchase of vehicles for political appointees and others than the money spent on actual road maintenance.
Between 2019 and 2021, Dataphyte’s review shows that the agency spent a sum of N1.859 billion on road maintenance while spending the sum of N2.955 billion on purchase of vehicles.
Nineteen contract awards accounted for the spend on road maintenance while the vehicle purchases were done in two contract awards.
Another sum of N2.043 billion was recorded spent on procurement of 91 units of different vehicles and the description reads ‘for the usage of Key Government Officials and political functionaries in the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Arms of the State Government’. The contract, with code ’ocds-x r9-000984-OS/RMA/05’ was awarded to Monan Trading Company limited in July 2020, the same day as the contract for the supply of Kia Sportage was awarded.
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The agency has spent 61.1% more on purchase of vehicles than it spent on road maintenance on vehicles between 2019 and 2021.
The duties of the Road Maintenance Agency which is under the state’s ministry of works and transportation is the rehabilitation and maintenance of state roads but the purchase of cars for government officials, which gulped more than road maintenance between 2019 and 2021, does not appear to be a part of its responsibilities. The agency is also modelled after the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, with the core mandate to keep roads in good and safe condition.
Reports on the poor state of Osun state roads and several calls for rehabilitation are substantiated by recent data from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS that places Osun state among the states with the highest number of road accidents in Nigeria.
According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in Q3, 2021, Osun state recorded 82 deaths from road accidents and another 63 in the Q4, 2021, totalling 145 deaths in six months from road accidents.
Bad roads can also lead to significant poor health outcomes for users. Issues such as low back pain, motion sickness asides from accident mortality can be caused by bad roads.
Roads are also key to any development agenda and according to the World Bank, good roads help to link up the economy. For instance Osun state’s economy is powered by agriculture, and a good road network that connects farms to markets and for the optimization of the agricultural value chain is critical for continued viability of the sector.
The spendings of the state’s road maintenance agency does not appear commensurate with the needs of the roads they are set up to maintain.
Official responses from Osun State is “No Comments”
The state’s commissioner for works, Remi Omowaiye, declined comments; he noted that the Osun Road Maintenance Agency head is in the best position to react.
When Dataphyte contacted the head of the state’s road maintenance agency who also doubles as the state governor’s special assistant on works, Toke Olaniyan, he declined to comment, noting that he is not authorised to speak on behalf of the state government.
Osun state’s commissioner for Information, Funke Egbemode, did not also respond to requests for comments.
Dataphyte contacted the spokesman to the Osun State governor, Ismail Omipidan on the phone and he denied knowledge of this development, asking to be reached via WhatsApp with the questions that needed clarifications. However, days after doing so and despite getting read receipts on the whatsapp messages sent to his official WhatsApp number, Mr Omipidan did not reply to the enquiries. He also did not respond to follow up calls and text messages