The Minister
of Housing and Urban Development has rejected claims by the contractor charged
with the construction of government low cost housing project in Ntabang Nkwen
that works has been slowed by insecurity.
Minister Jean Claude Mbwentchou was
speaking in Bamenda Thursday June 7 at the close of a one day working visit to
the city. |
Minsiter Jean Claude Mbwentchou Delegate at the housing
project site
While at the
low cost housing project site, the expressed dissatisfaction with the snail
pace nature of work insisting that the subcontractor in charged has been to
Yaounde on more than one occasion to collect money which is not reflected on
the project. With work ongoing in a nearby project site, the MINHDU boss noted
that the issue has been misdirected consumption and misappropriation of funds
meant for the project and not insecurity.
“Low cost
housing in the field is about 20%; I was here one year ago and work was 10%
that means in one year we have 10%; it is not enough. I am not happy because
the contractor talked about insecurity; we are in field and I went into the
market with you; what in insecurity? The Minister said
As if to
debunk the insecurity claims as well, the Deputy Mayor of the Bamenda III
Council indicated to the Minister that there have been several instances of
work suspension due to non-payment of workers and incident he noted has led to
several strike actions.
After
registering his discontent with the over one year project with only a few
erected pillars to show, the Minister instructed an increase in number of
workers, material and deadlines. “We asked them to double the number of people
who are working with him. We asked them to bring more material and more to be
in the management of this project. We give them one week to do the new planning
with my team…. And we give them four months as from November because the end of
this project is November and we see that they cannot finish that means they
have until end of March 2019 to finish the job.”
To improve
supervision Minister Mbwentchou added “We ask also the Governor to be very
strict to this people who are coming. They don’t have to come do two days and
go; they have to be in Bamenda. I have confidence in the governor. We have also
asked the Government Delegate to be in the field to work for the satisfaction
of the people of Bamenda.
The
Minister’s visit which had as objective evaluation of the PLANUT project in the
domains of housing, the projects earmarked for the C2D program funded by the
French Development Agency ADF and the state of road works and sanitation in
Bamenda took the Housing and Urban Development Minister across the city’s three
subdivisions for an on the spot appraisal of the project sites.
 |
Close to two years old housing project in Ntabang-Nkwen
Bamenda
Addressing
the Minister’s visit debriefing session, the Government Delegate to the Bamenda
City Council, thanked the Government for the funds made available for the
various projects across the city adding that they were priority project
selected with the participation of the population. Ndumu Vincent Nji however
regretted the poor road network in the city, appearance of unauthorized new
layouts and appealed for more funds for the construction of a dual carriage way
to link the fast growing Tubah Subdivision with Bambili in particular to the
City Center of Bamenda.
The Minster
visited the Bamenda I market and park expected to host the city bus station,
the Mulang Area expected to host a market, the Mile four Nkwen slaughter house
to be rehabilitated and the Ntarikon Market while inspecting some roads to be
done in the city.