MINEPAT to punish scheming, double-dealing Mayors

Officials from the Ministry of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, have warned Mayors and Government Delegates to desist from awarding contracts to themselves.

The Mayors, Regional Delegates, Directors of public corporations and other stakeholders were told that, “they cannot be referees and players at the same time.”

The two MINEPAT officials, Monica Akwafei and Houdou Ndambendia, were speaking in Bamenda during the Northwest Regional follow-up committee meeting that was dedicated to examination of the level of execution of the 2014 Public Investment Project, PIP, in the Northwest.

They said they were embarrassed that the Mayor of Widikum in Momo Division, Denis Tayo, awarded himself a contract to supply benches to SAR/SM Technical College and the work was not received due to the poor quality of the wood.

“Any Mayor caught executing any contract in his municipality is taking a big risk because; the law does not permit Mayors to do so. The poor job done by the Mayor of Widikum is because he is the referee and player at the same time. Sanctions await any defaulter,” the MINEPAT officials warned.

They, however, praised the Regional Delegate of MINEPAT, Kenneth Njeb AKarawa and the Follow-up Committee for hard work that has kept Northwest in the first position in the execution of projects on time.

It was observed that there were some projects with specific difficulties in 2014. The project for the construction of 21 market sheds in Njinikom was not executed because the site had a problem, so, a geotechnical study was requested for the proposed site.

Benches supplied to some schools in Boyo were rejected because of the poor quality of the wood. Heavy rains hindered the maintenance of Council roads in Bum, Njinikom and Belo.

Another difficulty was the land dispute between Nkanchi in Misaje and Kichakwo in Bum, thereby, hindering the construction of two classrooms in Government School Kichakwo.

The project was therefore, moved to Fonfuka. A contractor who was to construct toilets in GTC Mbueni, deposited few bags of cement at the project sites and disappeared.

Other difficulties that were highlighted included, misdirected credits from Yaounde, Government awarding contracts from the central administration without follow-up, Councils not able to track all development projects and Mayors unable to give complete records of all projects in their municipalities.

Members of the Follow-up Committee were embarrassed that the Integrated Health Centres in Mbot and Chup villages of Donga Mantung were not executed for lack of medical staff.

The equipment destined to GTC Ntumbaw in Ndu is wasting at the Donga Mantung Divisional Delegation of Secondary Education because the school has no Principal.

The Mayor of Belo, Bernard Tosam, complained saying, “We in Boyo are being frustrated by the Public Works Delegate. We have been running behind him in vain to see how the FCFA 27 million meant for roads can be used to no avail.

Now that we have done everything humanly possible and there is no headway, we are pleading for immediate intervention by the President of the Follow-up Committee…, else, this money will be sent back to Yaounde.

The Vice President of the Northwest Regional Participatory Follow-up Committee, Regina Mundi, in her opening remarks, recalled that during the launching of the State budget in Bamenda on January 8, the representative of MINEPAT announced that the Northwest came first in Follow-up ranking out of the 10 Regions of the country in the 2014.

She lauded members of the Follow-up Committee for their diligence, zeal and endurance, doing a job that carries no pay package.

According to Mundi, the first quarter level of physical execution in 2014 stood at 3.39 percent. The Mezam performance of 8.94 percent among the divisions was the best.

She said, administrative bottlenecks, lack of mastery of procedure, and “forces beyond control, such as, the weather conditions are the things that resulted in very dismal performance. Nevertheless, I am standing here to tell a victory story. Bravo to all stakeholders,” Mundi stated.

She assured the Mayor of Belo that the Public Works Delegate will be called to order.

In order to ensure that all the difficulties encountered in the execution of projects in the Northwest are adequately addressed, a team from the Regional Follow-up Committee, led by its President will travel to Yaounde to meet MINEPAT to check corruption, the lowest bidder problem in awarding contracts and to ensure that if contracts must be awarded from Yaounde, the Regional Committee, the Mayors must be informed to track the contractors who, quite often, do not go to the field but collect money for work not done.

The 2015 allocation of credits to the Northwest stands at FCFA 18.94 billion to be used for 577 projects.

In addition, there is FCFA 11.7 billion to be managed from the central administration destined for Northwest. This year’s budget saw an increase of five percent.