Ghost contractors stall Fako public investment projects execution

While the physical execution rate of public investment projects in Fako for the year 2014 stills stands at 70.24 percent and the financial execution at 62.32 percent without priority projects, this has been blamed on some ghost contractors who have either abandoned projects or are dragging their feet in the completion of the projects.

This was disclosed in Limbe on Wednesday 14 January 2015 during the fourth quarter participatory divisional committee meeting for the follow up of the execution of public investment budget in Fako Division.

The Fako Divisional Delegate of the Economy, Planning and Regional Development, MINEPAT, Samgoh Nadege, disclosed that two huge projects have been abandoned and their contractors are at large. She added that some of the projects that are at 100% execution rate were not done with the respect of the project specifications.

Meanwhile, chairing the meeting, the Vice Chairman of the Fako Divisional Public Investment Projects follow-Up Committee, Rev. Mary Wose, said some stakeholders including engineers and voteholders have been showing reluctance as far as the follow-up of the projects are concerned. She divulged that some of the stakeholders, particularly mayors, have not been attending the follow-up committee meetings despite being invited. She also said some of the contractors are not committed.

Another issue which slowed the speedy execution of some projects, according to Rev Mary Wose, is the fact that the credits did not come on time. She advised that before tendering for contracts, contractors should ensure that they have the capacity to carry out the projects to the end. She also decried the lack of collaboration between contractors, voteholders and engineers.

“It is a sad situation that contractors and voteholders do not collaborate. We have not had this situation before. The engineers are also showing some reluctance whereas they are the eyes of the state and must be there to examine the projects to ascertain if they are well executed according to the specifications or not,” she said.

She was however, hopeful that the year 2015 will be different, “will witness changes and the rate of execution will increase”.

The representative of the Public Contracts Regulatory Board, ARMP, also frowned at the lack of collaboration between contractors, voteholders and engineers and the fact that key documents are not always available to voteholders to properly follow-up projects.

Another issue that was identified as a bane in the execution of the projects is the lowest bidder phenomenon in public contracts award.

It would be recalled that in 2012 the physical execution rate stood at 96 percent and financial execution at 84.39 percent while in 2013 physical execution was 84.31 percent and financial execution 62 percent.