By Awa B. Bah
The National Assembly Select Committee to monitor Government projects toured ongoing works on roads, bridge construction and rehabilitation projects in the North Bank and the Central River Regions respectively.
The Select Committee which is mandated to perform oversight functions in monitoring Government projects across the country, comprises National Assembly members and it is headed by their Chairperson Sulayman Saho. The committee as mandated will note the progress and challenges of Government projects and make recommendations to Government.
The visiting team which includes experts from the Ministry of Works, the National Roads Authority, Contractors, Engineers, Project Managers and Consultants, visited ongoing Government project works on the Essau- Kerewan road and Kerewan-Njawara road rehabilitation in the North Bank Region.
Chairperson Saho and his committee said they are impressed with the level and quality of work going on at the project sites but will continue to monitor them to ensure that the objectives of the project are achieved. He promised to engage the relevant authorities in fast tracking the works. They recommended that the relevant institutions of Government be put in the picture for accountability purposes. The committee also recommended that the green vegetation of the road side be maintained to replace lost vegetation.
At the Essau- Kerewan road project site, an official from the NRA said the project work to be done is a 9.6 kilometer road stretch with additional 14 sections to be repaired. The project, he said, started one year ago and should end August 2019; that the project is almost at the completion stage, and that the outstanding work left is not much. The project, the official said, costs D6.9 million and is funded from Government’s fuel levy.
The Alkalos and community Leaders who were said to have been engaged, commended the timeliness of the project; that they will work with project officials to better upkeep the roads. Alkali Paneh said the roads will ease the movement of goods and services.
At the Kerewan-Njawara road, the Chino-Gam Company limited and Foresight Engineering officials, led the committee on a conducted tour of the ongoing rehabilitation works.
According to them, the cost of the project is $459,543.45 out of which $442,878.64 is to be spent on civil works; that the period of liability detection is six months and the supervision and design was done by City Scape Associates. The project manager told the visiting Select Committee members that the implementing agency is UNOP and that the project is funded by the European Union. He said the Kerewan-Njawara road rehabilitation project started in January 2019 and will end on 3rd September 2019 as per the contract agreement.
He however noted that there are some challenges and that efforts are being made to overcome them; that some of these challenges are basalt and bitumen.
