– Walters Tarkang Ayuk says resignation due to malpractices/corruption
– Calls on President of SWRA to cancel the two contracts & re-launch the procedure to guarantee equity & transparency
– Contractor Ayafor Ernest refuses to comment on allegations levied against him
By Ikome Eposi Noella in Buea
The Commissioner for Education, Sports and Culture at the South West Regional Assembly and the Project Manager for the SWRA projects in Manyu Division, Walters Tarkang Ayuk has tendered his resignation as contract manager for the projects of solar lighting in Eyumojock town and Afap village in Eyumojock Subdivision.
Walters Tarkang in his resignation letter dated May 29 2023 addressed to the President of the SWRA, Hon. Bakoma Elango stated that his resignation in that capacity is due to established public contract malpractices exhibited by Ayafor Ernest Ayafor who is the representative of MINMAP in the South West Regional Assembly Internal Tender’s Board.
The complainant adds that he was appointed by the President of the SWRA as per decision Number 001/SWRA/SWREC/P/CAB of 18 January 2023 as the project manager of a number of projects in Manyu division including the solar lighting in Eyumojock town and the Afap village in Eyumojock Subdivision. He thereon complained that Ayafor Ernest Ayafor violated article 48 of the public contract code by calling some contractors who had tendered for the job to intimidate them and ask for an undisclosed amount of money for the Tender’s board to look with favour on their tender files.
Working with verified information he got from the MTN telephone company, Commissioner Tarkang Walters in his letter mentions the various telephone details made by Ayafor Ernest to the various contractors in question requesting for money.
His resignation letter reads “The above irregularity in violation of article 48 of the public contract code defeats the principle of good governance and compromises the principle of transparency and equity in the award of public contracts. It is on the bases of the above irregularity that I decline from acting as contract manager for the execution of the aforementioned public contracts whose procedure of examination and award is shrouded in irregularity and corruption, a vice which is being combatted with the last energy by the ministry of public contracts and all other public contracts regulatory bodies”.
“I therefore strongly recommend the outright cancellation of the said two contracts and a re-launch of the procedure to guarantee equity and transparency to all competitors without prejudice to the judicial pursuit of the inculpated and malicious member of the SWRA Tender’s board, representative of MINMAP” end of resignation letter.
Talking with The Sun Newspaper’s Buea correspondent over a telephone conversation on Monday June 12 2023,Ayafor Ernest Ayafor refused saying anything about the matter. His words echoed “I don’t know anything about any letter and even if there was a letter, I wasn’t copied in it which definitely means it wasn’t addressed to me. So the president whom the letter was addressed to is the competent authority to respond with regards to the issue at hand and not me” he concluded.
The two contracts involved are the Eyumojock solar lighting project subject of contract Number 002/0NIT/SWR/SWRA/ITB/BUEA/2023 of March 24 2023 awarded to GREENLIGHT GROCERY ENTERPRISE on May 25 2023 and the Afap solar light project subject of contract Number 007/0NIT/SWR/SWRA/ITB/BUEA/2023 of March 27 2023 awarded to GREENLIGHT GROCERY ENTERPRISE on May 2023 by the contracting authority, President of SWRA.
It is important to state that the President of the SWRA, Bakoma Elango during the first ordinary session of the regional assembly for 2023 which held on Tuesday February 14 2023 gave out stern warnings to contractors not serious with projects assigned to them.
President Bakoma appealed to all contractors of South West origin to help the regional assembly develop the SW region. “We want to avoid the phenomenon of ghost contractors, adventurers who come and lobby for contracts and when the contracts are awarded to them, they go and sub list the contracts”.
He added that the seriousness from contractors will help foster development in the South West Region and ensure a successful 100% execution rate of all projects in the region.