Chris Mbunwe
9 May 2008
The first quarter meeting of the technical sub-committee of the participatory follow-up of the Public Investment Budget, Northwest, has worried over the slow take-off of public contracts for 2008 fiscal year.
Committee members met, May 5-6 at the conference room of the NW Provincial Delegation of MINEPT, amidst fears that fewer projects could be executed this year if urgent measures are not taken.
This year, Northwest was allocated FCFA 10 billion for investment projects, an amount, which Parliamentarians described as chicken feed'.Barely half the year gone, participants at the meeting were yet to understand why the execution of Public Investment Projects stands at only four percent, out of the over 581 projects envisaged.
The slow take off has been blamed largely on insufficiency of funds, late engagement and payment of contracts, and bottlenecks involved in the execution public contracts.According to the Secretary General at the NW Governor's Office, Peter Tieh Ndeh, most of these projects are poorly executed.
Ndeh sounded optimistic that despite the slow take-off this year; at least 90 percent of the projects could be executed before the year ebbs out. Two of last year's projects; the provision of mortuary equipment to the Nkambe District Hospital and the construction of the 62nd Battalion in Nkambe, and others are yet to be executed.
Meanwhile, the Provincial Controller of Finance, Mrs. Alice Nouboue, paid tribute to government for increasing investment credits this year, and reminded Divisional controllers to include in their reports, projects to be awarded at the central level to ease the follow up of these projects at the provincial level.
On their part, Divisional Controllers said they have problems of withdrawal of credit cards ordered by the Ministry of Finance. They equally mentioned the difficulty of returning the credit cards because some have already been warded.
The MP for Santa, Hon. Nji Tumasang, appealed to government to simplify the acquisition, payment and execution of public investment projects.
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