The Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, in the approved 2025 budget for the state plans to spend a sum of โฆ10billion for the rehabilitation of Kwara Hotel.
This comes despite โฆ13 billion spent on the same project in 2024.
Between October and December 2024 alone, the state spent โฆ6.4 billion on the hotelโs rehabilitation.
With โฆ13 billion spent in 2024 and โฆ10 billion approved for 2025, a total of โฆ23 billion will be allocated to the project over two yearsโan increase from the widely reported โฆ17.8billion initially approved for the contract.
Despite spending โฆ13billion on the hotel in 2024, the state allocated โฆ0 for the construction or provision of public schools, โฆ6.5billion for the construction of hospitals and health centres, and only โฆ491million for the rehabilitation of water facilities.
In comparison, the rehabilitation of roads in the state received โฆ10.8billion in 2024.
In April 2024, the Elites Network for Sustainable Development (ENetSuD), an anti-corruption civil society organisation based in Kwara State, petitioned the Kwara State government and the contractors involved in the Kwara Hotel project
The group also wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
The petition, signed by ENetSuDโs Coordinator, Alagbonsi Abdullateef, was submitted on Monday, April 15, 2024, to the EFCC.
It was addressed to Comrade Gambari Volvo, the Director of Investigation and Public Petition (Kwara Central).
ENetSuD based its petition on seven key concerns, including the abrupt discontinuation of a previous contract award process, disregard for a company that offered a cheaper contract sum, the same project description being used for both companies, the market value of Kwara Hotel, both companies being self-funders of the project, lack of a clear mechanism to recover invested funds, and the uncertainty of project completion timelines.
In its three-point request to the EFCC, ENetSuD urged the commission to conduct a thorough investigation into whether the Kwara State Government (KWSG) complied with the state’s procurement law in awarding the contract, which was done in secrecy.
It also called for an assessment of the economic justification of spending โฆ17.8 billion to renovate a hotel valued at โฆ3.95 billion in October 2017 and โฆ5.42 billion in July 2022.
Furthermore, ENetSuD questioned the governmentโs motivation for disregarding a company that proposed a โฆ3billion concession model and instead awarding the project to another company for โฆ17.8billion.
Source : Sahara Reporters