PROJET DELIVERIES

Solar Lighting Project

New orders for more solar units are being made.  It is hoped that this year the remaining households and churches will be supplied. As before, these will be distributed according to the name lists that have been submitted to the SMC Office

Rokera PSS – Power project

As reported in the previous quarter, the electrical wiring to classrooms, dormitories, staff houses and other school buildings was incomplete.  It appeared the electrician who was contracted by the Energy Division of the Ministry of Mines, Energy & Rural Electrification made a mess of this job even after he was paid the entire project funds.  Besides, not long after its installation, the generator has had to undergo repairs and maintenance. This is another example of the level of inefficiency emanating from corrupt practices in project implementation at the line ministry level. Hon R Hou has expressed his concerns and total dissatisfaction with this outcome to the Ministry and demanded that this job be completed under 2013 budget under that Division.  The Ministry has since started looking for another contractor to finish the job.

Project Deliveries

In March, the SMC Office chartered LC Santos for delivery of project materials around the Constituency. Loaded with materials for church buildings, tourism projects, agriculture projects, community water supply & sanitation projects, schools, households, clinics, sea transportation projects, and other community projects, the LC Santos began unloading at Sarawasi village in Zone 1. These materials are for funding of projects in respect of fiscal year 2012.  Due to the procedural delays within line ministries, despite being submitted since May 2012, these projects only went through for payment in December last year.

As a matter of the procedure, as soon as the annual Budget is passed by Parliament, it is incumbent on all line ministries to submit their detailed programs of activities to support their respective development budgets to the Ministry of Development Planning.  Only after the Ministry of Planning endorsement can line ministries start spending their development budget allocations. Failing that, no development budget may be spent and development programs may not be implemented.  Sadly, there are signs that the delays experienced last year may be repeated again this year: so far there has been no indication from the important ministries of Agriculture, Culture & Tourism and Forestry if their respective development budgets have been endorsed yet by the Ministry of Development Planning. This is a serious delay and we are pursuing this matter with the respective ministries.