Governor’s sanctions loom over contractors, civil servants

With the expiration of the November 15 deadline issued by Southwest Governor, Bernard Okalia Bilai for the engagement of all projects within the Public Investment Budget, PIB, the Southwest Regional boss is now expected to live up to his promise of sanctioning defaulters.

Okalia had promised during a regional coordination meeting in Kumba last October 23, to take tough sanctions against anybody,organisation or group of persons that fails to completely engage all Government sponsored projects in the Southwest.

He had observed during the coordination meeting that, 52 percent execution of the PIP, was unacceptable.

Top among those the Governor planned to track down are contractors who abandon projects and Regional Delegates, who, he said, pretend to respect their Ministers and take, for granted, the Governor’s instructions.

Speaking to reporters at the end of the Kumba conclave back then, Okalia stated that he was waiting to see a Minister in the current cabinet who will challenge his orders with respect to the drive to maximise investment credit for the region.

According to the Governor, he is the sole representative of the President of the Republic in the Region, which puts him at the centre of every contract, no matter where it was awarded and irrespective of the contractors.

“They will see what I will do to them. When the time comes, come back with your microphone and ask me this question and I will know what to tell you," Okaliahad told reporters.

In another declaration to his collaborator of Kupe-Muanenguba, who had identified reasons why contracts were not yet executed, the Governor promised to queue in with sanctions after November 15.

“Mr. SDO, I have given you up till November 15, for all these projects to be implemented and if I see that you have not used all your powers, I will enter the game," the Governor warned.

In the meantime, the population remains in wait for what the Governor will do in the days ahead.

During the build-up to celebrations marking the 50thanniversary of Cameroon's Reunification in Buea, the Governor, who later became known as “le Gouverneur du Cinquanternaire,” engaged in a frantic battle with contractors to have projects implemented within prescribed deadlines.

Okalia had announced, during the Kumba conclave, that there was no justification to the late execution of projects, no matter the location. To him, even some civil servants had set up a bribe-collecting machinery through which they milked contractors, at the detriment of the development of the region.

As it stands, the sledgehammer of the Governor is expected to fall on contractors and public officials in areas such as the Bakassi Peninsular in the NdianDivision, where projects abandonment is rife.

Recently, during a contact tour of the Bakassi, the Senior Divisional Officer for Ndian, Chamberlain Ndong, came face-to-face with poorly constructed and abandoned projects for which credits have been consumed.

In a visit to one of such Council buildings poorly constructed in Bakassi, the SDO reportedly mistook it for a cocoa store.

Ndong's tour,undertaken in the first week of November, exposed civil administrators and security officials who have abandoned their duty posts in quest of greener pastures abroad.

Thus, the Governor is expected to update the population of the Southwest on the situation of key projects in the KupeMuanenguba Division, where his collaborator is having a hard time bringing contractors to book.