Contractors handling various projects under the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education have raised alarm over what they described as “unholy and illegal deductions” carried out by the Directorate of Finance in the Ministry—deductions they claim are unknown to the state government.
Several contractors who spoke in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital, expressed deep concern over the practice and called on Governor Douye Diri to urgently intervene.
They described the deductions as a major factor contributing to the growing number of abandoned projects across the Ministry of Education.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of being blacklisted, the contractors alleged that in addition to statutory deductions—which are remitted directly into the state’s treasury—the Directorate of Finance routinely deducts an additional 10 to 15 percent from each contract awarded by the ministry.
These deductions, they claimed, are justified under vague labels such as “supervision” and “logistics.”
They also alleged that this practice appears to be exclusive to the Ministry of Education, as it is not replicated in other ministries within the state.
The contractors urged Governor Diri to launch an investigation into the matter and bring transparency to project funding and contract execution in the Ministry.
According to them, such deductions are not applied in similar contracts awarded by other ministries, such as the Ministry of Health, where only statutory charges are reportedly deducted.
Sources familiar with the situation disclosed that some aggrieved contractors had previously protested to the office of the Bayelsa State Commissioner for Finance, raising concerns about what they described as illegal financial practices within the Ministry of Education.
Several complaints were said to have been channelled to the commissioner through one of his aides, who also serves in the Bayelsa State Treasury Department.
One of the contractors allegedly affected is an Ijaw activist who was awarded a contract for the construction of a 12-classroom storey building in the Southern Ijaw Local Government Area. The project, like many others, is said to have stalled due to deductions believed to have been imposed arbitrarily by the finance department.
Another contractor, a traditional titleholder working under the same ministry, was said to have expressed frustration over the deductions, which reportedly range between 10 and 15 per cent of the total contract sum. These come in addition to the standard statutory deductions such as tax and VAT.
Observers note that most of the affected projects were already underfunded, with initial cost estimates failing to reflect prevailing economic realities, including soaring inflation and escalating prices of construction materials. This, coupled with the alleged deductions, is believed to be contributing significantly to the growing number of abandoned projects under the Ministry of Education.
Contractors are now calling on Governor Diri and relevant oversight agencies to investigate the issue and implement measures to ensure transparency, accountability, and justice in the state’s contract execution processes.
One of the contractors said: “The development should be urgently looked into by the Governor of the State, Senator Douye Diri, to avoid uncompleted and abandoned projects being littered all over the state.
“The Directorate of Finance of the Bayelsa State Ministry of Education should be urgently called to order, and should be stopped from their alleged fraudulent acts and extortions.”
The contractors insisted that it does not take anything from the Prosperity Government of Senator Douye Diri to verify these claims by auditing the accounts of the Education Ministry.
One of them said, “The government, through the Finance Ministry, knows how much it has paid into the Education Ministry’s accounts. All that the state government needs to do is to cross-check how much the Ministry of Education received for the various jobs from the State Treasury, and how much it in turn, paid into the contractors accounts for these projects, and we can assure you that within two weeks, the ongoing alleged fraudulent activities of the Ministry will be unravelled as most of the contractors who were recently paid mobilisation fees for the construction of Bayelsa State Technical College, Oporoma, Southern Ijaw LGA of the State also suffered the same ill-fate.”
When contacted, the Director in the Directorate of Finance, Ministry of Education, Mr Joe Sikpi, said the ministry had not received any official complaints from the contractors.
“We have not received such complaints from our contractors. Do well to ask such a person if he or she has made any official complaint to the Ministry,” Sikpi said.