The challenges posed by the ongoing Anglophone impasse and other delays witnessed at the level of the contracting authorities, tender boards have been partly blamed for the dismal execution of the public investment budget for the 2019 financial year in the South West region which stands at 7.5%.
This shocking execution rate leaves the region in a precarious situation with the denizens who are to benefit from the fallouts of these projects in a dilemma. The statistics were revealed in the presence of stakeholders who gathered to evaluate the rate of implementation of the public investment budget recently in Buea.
The physical execution rate of 7.5% represents a drop compared to the same period last year which stood at 16.2%. The stakeholders at the first semester follow-up committee meeting made recommendations on how to improve the situation on ground notably: capacity building workshop to train technical personnel in a bid to tackle the problem of delays in the award of contracts; and for contractors to do their own part of the deal.
The aforementioned measures among others, the members of the follow-up committee noted will ensure that the FCFA 9.7 bilion Public Investment Budget allocated for the South West will be translated to projects that will benefit the local population.
Speaking to the reporters, the South West Regional Delegate of Economy, Planning and Regional Development, Godlove Buinda, lamented the slow pace of the execution and noted that if these projects are not carried out, it will have a toll on the population in the future.
“We have a number of projects that were sent to the South West region. They include, road construction works, construction of classrooms, the construction of some regional delegations. We also have a number of water projects in Bokova, Oyumojock; electrification in Lebialem division,” Buinda listed.
While decrying the low rate of execution, the authorities noted that by this time last year, 93.44% of expected bidding documents were received whereas this year they have registered just 67.06%. It was also revealed that the percentage of project launching for 2019 is lower than the previous year as well as the award and notification of contracts.
To ameliorate the situation, the committee resolved that some key contractors should be invited during participatory follow-up meetings so as to present the difficulties they are facing on the field during execution of projects and equally share their experience/strategies they used to execute projects in difficult areas.