Two Departments To Effect Change in Executing Infrastructure Projects

By Godlove BAINKONG, Cameroon Tribune, 08-10-2013

Feasibility studies and infrastructure control are hence managed by specialised structures.  

All things being equal, immature projects that have been inscribed into the project logbooks and which compromise the smooth execution of the public investment budget, may soon be a thing of the past.  The new facelift given the Ministry of Public Works, following its re-organisation by a Presidential decree of September 13, 2013 also gives orientations on infrastructure control with the creation of the directorate general for public infrastructure.

Directorate General For Technical Studies

Placed under a Director General, the department will serve as a reference point in matters of technical studies of roads, railways, sea and airports, energy and other public infrastructure projects. It is also to follow up the quality and cost as well as deadlines of public works infrastructure in the country to ensure that their construction, maintenance and rehabilitation are done according to laid down rules. All interventions on the road networks and other public works infrastructure are to be planned and programmed by the directorate general of technical studies.  It is when such studies are carried out that the department prepares tender files for the award of such contracts. Also in this department, there is a service for technical studies on roads and another for public buildings and other infrastructure. Again, there is the Division for supporting technical studies and another for planning, programming and standards.

Directorate General For Infrastructure

The department of infrastructure is supposed to partner with other structures in the construction of rail, ports (sea and air), energy, as well as environmental projects. It is also expected to work on rehabilitating these infrastructure as well as assure the technical supervision of the projects in conformity with laid down standards. This department will work in synergy with councils in the proper execution of roads and public building projects as well as in the putting in place of a national strategy in developing rural roads. In liaison with concerned administrations, the department prepares tender files for related projects taking into consideration environmental concerns.  Five services have been put in place to ensure the success of the department: Road investment, protection and management of the road patrimony, rural roads, construction and other infrastructure.

Implications

When stakeholders in the execution of public contracts met in Yaounde mid this year to seek ways of reversing the sorry performance rate, it emerged that there are projects inscribed in the logbook whose feasibility studies have not yet been carried out. Tender files for such projects are obviously rejected by either the central or ministerial tenders committee and this drags the execution of projects, sometimes even blowing up the cost. These departments will not only carryout studies on the bankability of the projects and their impact on the population concerned but will equally see into it that deadlines are respected and anomalies like ordering a retake of an already executed project with all the inconveniences really belong to history.