By Crispina Lois Cummings
Officials of the national programme coordinating unit in the ministry of agriculture say they have terminated two road construction contracts this year. They made this disclosure while the unit and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) met with the parliamentary oversight committee on works on Wednesday. Speaking on behalf of the unit, the senior procurement and human resource officer, James Foh said the contracts were terminated for “poor performance” from Simaru Pharmaceutical Construction Company in Kenema and ATAK Engineering and Construction Enterprises. He said the contracts were awarded to those companies in 2011 but they did nothing. Foh noted that they were yet to re-award the contracts. He also gave a status report on IFAD-sponsored projects including their successes and challenges. The chairman of the works committee, Kombo Kamara, MP, of constituency 56 in Lokomasama raised questions about the monitoring of those projects. He said he was concerned because questions had been raised about the credibility of district councils, some of which he said were not carrying out their monitoring role sincerely and that they do allow sub-contractors who perform poorly to go scot-free. The chairman also asked if some of those contracts were usually delayed because of a delay in disbursing funds, a practice which he said many companies had complained about. Foe told the committee that as long as it was an IFAD-sponsored project, funds for payment were always available in the bank, adding that contractors would always find a way to exonerate themselves. He said that for monitoring of projects, that responsibility fell within the purview of the councils. © Politico 15/08/13
