South West Public Investment Projects comes under attack ⁰

The Vice President of the Committee of Public Investment Budget in the South West Region, Madam Agbor Magdalane has decried what she termed the “so-called miss-placed priority of the BIP projects at the regional level.” The South West Iron Lady was speaking in Buea during the first quarterly meeting to evaluate the level of execution of the Public Investment Projects in the region.

Madam Agbor Magdalane stated that projects at the level of the region have no vision and have no impact on the suffering masses. Lucrative projects such as roads, electricity, water and health have been relegated within the BIP. She hinted that renovation and purchase of equipment has rather preoccupied the development purse in the region.

Said Madam Agbor  “The regional projects are not even poverty alleviation projects. You can’t have regional projects when you always have renovation of office buildings and buying of equipment. Do we have to renovate and buy equipments every year?” “We want to know what they do with the old equipment,” she demanded.

 Constituencies such as Ndian, Manyu, Meme, Kupe Muanenguba and Lebialem that are in dying need of rapid development projects have been reduced to cosmetic attention and the bigger picture buried. It is not only embarrassing but sad. She further noted that “councils are crying for decentralization, they want power and the little power they have been given, they cannot do things, so that people are encourage knowing that they deserve more power. They are never present. If you look at the low recovery rate, it’s because of projects at the level of the council.”

For her part, the representative of the Minister of Economic Planning and Regional Development, Mme. Djomana Christine announced that henceforth the public investment budget for the region would witness an increase. The South West was awarded 383 projects for 2016 financial year with an estimated cost of about 4,692,951,150 FRS. So far, 672,948,051 FRS have been engaged with a total payment of 429,798,202 FRS giving a percentage of 9.16% in actual payment. The physical execution is rated at 33.06%. Ndian division with about 79 projects, amounting to 926,448,300 FRS still stands at 0.00% execution at all levels. The meeting was boycotted by some regional delegates and heads of state corporations in the South West Region.

Cham Victor Bama (Cameroon Concord News Group)