Decryptage - Terminate the Contract

The population of Ndian Division in the South West Region may not be able to participate in festivities marking 50 years of Reunification. If that were to be true, the people of the Division that hosts the country's most cherished Bakassi Peninsular will have no other person to blame than the company that won the contract to repair the Kumba-Mundemba road.

The Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian, Peter Tieh Ndeh while chairing the divisional security coordination meeting vehemently condemned the state of the road which is at the mercy of the rainy season. The "Chef de terre" as they are fondly called went the extra mile requesting that the contract with the said company, Super Comfort be annulled. In effect, the number one personality for Ndian considers the work so far done on the road as unsatisfactory. Even though the South West Regional Delegate of Public Works and Supervisory Engineer, Denis Awoh Ndang, seems not to share the same view, what remains common denominator is the fact that the Kumba-Mundemba road is bad and in some areas almost impassable. What can equally be remembered is the fact that a contract was signed with a company for repairs but the work has not been done.

The Kumba-Mundemba road is not just any kind of road. The 110 kilometre-road is the livewire of the population of the area. The people swear by it and of course any attempt at destroying it tantamount to outright wickedness. The company in charge of repairing the road may have its reasons for the suspension of work on the project but it is doubtful if this can be convincing enough to the population which has been informed money has been programmed for it. That said, poor execution of projects in the road sector has become a way of life for many companies. This state of affairs is very frequent and noticeable with local companies. Many of them are ill equipped and technically inapt. Even when they have all these qualities, they openly manifest bad faith in the execution of these projects. The solution to this may only be the one the SDO for Ndian is proposing, terminating such contracts whenever they fail, for, officials of such companies will never lack an excuse.