The minister of Public Works has disclosed that four local companies have been contracted to resume works along the deplorable Babadjoiur-Bamenda road as many feared works have been abandoned due to rising insecurity pose by the ongoing conflict in the region.
Emmanuel Nganou Djoumessi made the revelations Sunday 20 June 2021 in an interview he granted CRTV’s magazine programme, Cameroon Calling. He used the programme to promise that all necessary steps have been taken by government and her funding partner, the World Bank, to get the works done in latest fourteen months.
Nganou’s outing comes after scathing criticisms from Cameroonians directed to his person and government on several social media platforms and traditional media outlets. Some media organs even went as far as demanding the resignation of the works minister while orders pleaded with President Paul Biya to sack him with immediate effect.
Nganou indicated that the contract which started in 2017 with a 24 months deadline but was unfortunately stopped following August 22, 2018 attack on the construction site by gunmen. The attack left many of the equipment of the company burned down.
In order to get things back to control, Minister Nganoun revealed he wrote to the World Bank, which is funding the project and the institution demanded that social assessment of the project be carried out to determine if the beneficiaries actually want the project to continue.
He said this forced the company to write to him demanding the cancelation of the project due to rising insecurity which he denied in order for government to avoid paying huge sums for compensation to the company as specified by the project details.
He said if such proposals to cancel the project are accepted, government will be paying huge sums to Satom for no work done amounting to over 10-15 billion for compensation for mobilizing equipment to start works which were later stalled. He said the company then demanded over four billion which government rejected and accepted to pay over 1 billion as compensation.
He said the works were further stalled shortly after commencement on the Babadjou-Matazen stretch when gunmen attacked the area 8 January 2021 and killed four soldiers. This he said made Satom to write another letter stating they can no longer work on the road.
Negotiations to this effect he said has led to the splitting of the road into four parts and handed to local companies. The Minister said in order for the works to be done faster, Babadjou-Matazen (17km) which was to be handled by Satom after denying to do any part of the road in the NW will be handed to another local company through open tenders.
He revealed that the Matazen-Welcome to Bamenda (18km) section has been handed to BUNS construction company, Bamenda cliff (4.93km) handed to Buffers and the urban section of the road (9.40km) given to Edge. Nganou said the local companies have been given the works because they can easily communicate with the population as they start working while traditional rulers have also assured of the protection of the contractors.
He added that the urban section might further be delayed because Edge Company went out of the dimension of the road causing nine of those whose houses were destroyed to file a complaint to the World Bank indicating how their buildings have been destroyed.
He expressed disappointment on the action as the Country Director upon receiving the complaints wrote to him suspending the discussions relating to funding for the works in the crisis zone against the standard of the World Bank.
He said through dialogue, the negotiations have continued and a consultant was contacted to do evaluations on the road to see if it is ready for start which was done but for few locals who despite receiving compensation continue to stay in the area in the urban section. The Minister said they are preparing to recommence the works as all the companies are on the site doing their technical studies. He revealed that the Country Director of the World Bank is committed to see the works start any time soon based on the instructions from the headquarters.
He said the works will be done in day and night in order for it to be delivered very fast latest fourteen months after. Aside the main road, he said 52 kilometres of communal road will be tarred also. This he said will selected by the Mayor to disencalve the agriculture sector, markets, schools, water supply system, electricity, among others.
By Doh Bertrand Nua
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