STAKEHOLDERS’ INVOLVEMENT IN CONTRACTING AND IMPLEMENTING COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study was carried out to assess the level of involvement of stakeholders in contracting and implementing community and social development projects in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study identified the relationship of community stakeholders’ involvement with contracting and implementing community and social development projects in Ondo State, Nigeria. It also assessed the challenges faced by the stakeholders in the process of projects’ contracting and implementation. The population of the study consists of all stakeholders in the Community and Social Development Project in Ondo State. These are the Local Governments’ Directors of Administration (DLGA) and Desk Officers; relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies’ (MDA) Desk Officers; benefitting communities and the Ondo State Community and Social Development Agency (ODCSDA) staff. Due to the large size of the population, multi-level sampling technique was adopted in selecting study samples. Ten (10) respondents were randomly selected from each of the twelve Communities considered in this study. In addition 6 Directors of Local Government Administration, 6 Desk Officers of the selected LGAs, 10 ODCSDA Staff and 8 Ministry, Departments and Agencies’ Desk Officers were purposively selected. The study considered a total sample size of One hundred and fifty (150) respondents were selected. Copies of questionnaires were administered to the respondents to elicit information on the study objectives. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analyses. The result of the study showed that the involvement of community stakeholders in contracting is very high as their authority to procure labour and materials; involvement in procurement planning and; their control of financial and administrative functions of the projects ranked highest with mean scores of 4.5, 4.05, 3.65 and Relative Importance Index of 0.90, 0.81 0.73 respectively. Cumbersome processes and practices; attempt by powerful community stakeholders using their influence to take over the project; and undue interference by project staff and other stakeholders in the procurement processes were ranked high with severity indices 0.72, 0.65 and 0.64 respectively. These were identified to pose serious challenge to the stakeholders in contracting and implementing rural infrastructure. It was concluded that stakeholders were fully involved in contracting and implementing the community and social development projects. Thus necessitating the fact that donor agencies and government are to recognise benefitting communities as important stakeholders in project interventions to entrench all round sustainable development in Ondo State, Nigeria. Also, community project contracting and implementation should be adopted as a policy thrust for project interventions at the community level. This will further establish public work interventions as a tool for social protection programme implementation to reduce grassroots poverty and to accelerate sustainable development of our communities.