BY TAC with reports from Olive Ejang*
The Senior Divisional Officer for Kupe Muanenguba, Mungambo Ekema William, has ordered the arrest of contractors who abandon, or fail to execute public investment projects.
The SDO was speaking recently at his conference hall in Bangem, during the monthly consultation meeting for the follow-up of the execution of the 2022 Public Investment Projects.
Mungambo lamented at the physical execution rate of 32.56% for Kupe Muanenguba, as at October 2022.
He questioned why many projects were still at zero percent (0 %) physical execution rate.
The SDO said most of the abandoned projects were out of bad faith by contractors who lacked the financial capacity to handle these projects. He intimated that it is high time these contractors be arrested and brought to order.
SDO for Kupe Muanenguba
According to the SDO, contractors must first source for enough funds, before applying to execute contracts, else communities suffer at the end.
Mungambo pleaded with vote holders, contractors, and all stake holders involved in the execution of public investment projects to work extremely hard to attain a 100 percent execution rate at the end of 2022. “We should try and make things better else we will be cheating the people God has sent is to take care of.” He cautioned.
The Divisional Delegate of Public Works, Kupe Muanenguba, Shu Rene also regretted that though contracts are awarded on time, some contractors disappear with the file, claiming to be carrying out registration procedure.
The Delegate said these contractors only appear at the end of the year to block the credits for payment. He suggested that once contracts are awarded, a copy of the contract be sent to the contract engineer for follow up.
The Kupe Muanenguba Divisional Delegate for Water and Energy, Jacob AkumeEwang decried the absence of service orders from councils in the division to empower engineers to execute contracts.
While the Divisional Delegate of Economy, Planning, and Regional Development, Ntoi Eugene, announced that Divisional Vote Holding projects has a 100 % execution rate. He said Bangem Council has 21.52%, Nguti Council, 53.86%, and Tombel Council, 3.5%, giving a grand total of 32.56% for the entire division.
The Delegate promised that they will intensify work to attain over 80% execution rate by November 2022.
Some contractors speaking to the press on the basis of anonymity said prolonged rainfall this year has deterred them from executing projects.
Olive Ejang is DDCOM for Kupe Muanenguba