Private sector role in road maintenance examined

The annual review of the partnership agreements of Mintp opened on Thursday in Yaounde. Maintenance and annual rehabilitation of the roads, which is the responsibility of the Ministry of public works (Mintp), occurs mostly in synergy with private structures through partnership agreements.

In terms of governance, as indicated by the technical advisor n°2 of Mintp, Simeon Abada, "partnerships contribute to reduce the cost of interventions of the State, with the involvement of the local actors of development in the process of opening-up the areas of production.

Another advantage at the level of the development communities were states as, "these partnerships allow beneficiary populations to enjoy the advantages of the installation of a development company in their immediate environment.

In 2005, Mintp signed a number of conventions of partnerships with associations such as the Sodecao, the Sodecoton to rehabilitate and maintain certain roads of inland regions in the Centre, far North, North, West, Northwest and Southwest.

Ten years later, officials decided to assess such partnerships during a dialogue between the various actors.

The annual review of partnership agreements therefore opened yesterday to supervise the management of these conventions, to diagnose the problems inherent in their management and proposed corrective measures.

Indeed, several malfunctions and deficiencies have been identified in the implementation of these conventions. "It thus appeared appropriate to provide better guidance on the implementation of these conventions through regular monitoring and adoption of management tools", said the Adviser.

Specifically, the work aims to put at the disposal of Mintp and its partners, a manual of procedures for the convention type description to be implemented to maintain and rehabilitate of the roads and procedures related to their management.

Review of partnerships, coupled with a seminar by building the capacity of stakeholders in the implementation of conventions took place late Friday.