Public contractors vow to be more committed

Stakeholders in the Public contract sector in the South West Region have resolved to be more committed in their work of serving the people through effective follow up and execution of public contracts.

This resolution is one of the many taken at the end of a two-day coordination meeting, the 5th edition for the Region that ran from 29th to 31st October at the Limbe I Council conference hall, Down Beach, Limbe.

Opening the coordination meeting, the representative of the Mayor of Limbe I, Charles Eyum Sama, Public Relations Officer of the Council, lauded the initiative of the Regional Delegate and his team for being interested in the follow up of the execution of public contracts.

He said the Limbe I Council is a veritable partner to the Ministry of Public contracts, reason why it is his pleasure to officially welcome the stakeholders to Limbe.

Meanwhile the Divisional Delegate of Public Contract for Fako, explained that the Coordination meeting was initiated a year ago by the Regional Delegate of public contact and the present meeting is the 5th in line.

He called on the participants to be very participative throughout the deliberations and attentive in all presentations for a better understanding of the sector, its functioning and procedures.

In his intervention, the Regional Delegate of Public Contract and initiator of the Coordination meetings said the main aim of the meeting is to bring together, project owners, contractors, contracting authorities and Supervisors of contracts.

He said these actors, come together, brainstorm and exchange ideas as well as iron out issues and forge ahead as a team. “We should be able to know who plays what role in the identification, award, follow-up and execution of public contracts.” He said

This question was solved by a paper presentation on “The role of different stakeholders in the Arad and Follow up of Public Contracts”. Representing the Senior Divisional Officer for Fako at the meeting was Nafongo Vincent Likombe, the First Assistant SDO for Fako.

Though he was bitter that a Regional Coordination meeting is holding under the auspices of the Senior Divisional Officer instead of the Governor, Mr Nafongo Vincent however said such administrative flaws should not be committed in the future.

The SDO said the Ministry of Public Contract was created in 2011 to see and make sure that Cameroon’s emergence by 2035 is a reality. As technicians, they are called upon to take personally the vision of the Head of State to its realization point.

In the course of the meeting, participants had time to share experiences, problems and success stories. A case in point is a project with the Idenau Council where the Mayor doubted if the project had already been awarded.

The Divisional Delegate of Public Contract for Fako, said he the contract had already been awarded and that work was to begin soon. This shocked the Mayor who was only hearing that for the first time, and wondered how a contract for his council without his knowledge of him seeing the contract papers.

Observers also questioned how the Divisional Delegate was planning to send the contractor to the field without notifying the Mayor who had to receive him. A few project owners corroborated that it is becoming normal that they get up one fine morning only to discover that a contractor is working within their jurisdiction without any introduction.

To all these, the Regional Delegate technically lambasted the Divisional Delegate for such a gaff and urged him with the least delay to keep the Mayor of Idenau abreast with all the documents of the award of the said contract.