Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has accused the Federal Government, of inadvertently, promoting corruption whenever it allows paltry sums of money, in its yearly budget for a project, instead of the entire money required to complete such projects within the agreed time.
The governor, said this at the inauguration of the GRA Junction Flyover on Saturday in Port Harcourt.
He said such practice encourages variation of the value of the projects, elongates the time specified to complete such projects and most often, leads to abandonment.
He also explained that in such situations, the contract value becomes affected by inflation and there is a likelihood of adjustment of the items, which eventually breeds corruption.
“You know, I don’t like the word variation. It is not in my dictionary. That is where you see corruption. That is why when you see federal government budget; how can you award a job of N60billion, then in the budget of the year, you put N2billion,” he said.
“What kind of contract is that? Why will there not be variation. That job will last in the next ten years and that is the problem we have in our contract execution,” Wike added.
He explained that such culture is not encouraged in Rivers State under his administration and there is no rationale for him to spend four years, for example doing a particular project.
