By Prince J Musa in Kenema
Sub- contractors working with Pavi-Fort roads Construction Company in Kenema have accused some of the company engineers of being responsible for the slow pace at which the township roads were being constructed which might delay the project beyond its original completion date.
These concerns were reported at a meeting with the administrative officer of Sierra Leone Roads Authority, Dauda Sheriff and Engineer Andrew Jusu.
Prince Mansaray, a civil society activist told the gathering that as part of their role as civil society activists they decided to do a joint monitoring of the road works in the city and during their assessment sounded the views of some local contractors working on various parts of the roads in the city .
He said: “The sub -contractors allege giving some cash to engineers before materials were released to do the work. We as civil society activists are concerned about the way the road work is slowly going on as we approach the rainy season. Our business is to monitor the work and alert SLRA and PAVI-Fort to any concerns that threaten the works.
Fallah Albert Bockarie, who led the delegation to the SLRA disclosed that the security agency hired by Pavi-fort is under paying their staff and most of the guards are not issued letters of employment and in fact most of them were recruited from other places instead of the indigenes of Kenema; the recruitment process was poorly done by Eagle Acts security agency.”
The SLRA Engineer Andrew Jusu said that most of the concerns made by civil society activists have reached their table and “is therefore not strange to the SLRA office. We work directly with Pavi-fort not sub –contractors. No contractor should give money to any Pavi-fort engineer.
He added that the delivery of materials on site depends on when the contractor made the request as the request will be studied before making the materials available but that if the request was not made on time, the engineers should not be blamed.
The engineer said Pavi-fort has a little challenge with machines that process the quarry but that new machines will soon be brought to speed up the work and another quarry site has been opened up. He said SLRA had no hands in the recruitment of the guards but Pavi-fort.
Meanwhile the Public relations officer of Pavi-fort Kenema, Samuel Oba Navo told Politico that they were not aware of any such allegations from their sub-contractors Pavi-fort.
He said all materials are produced by the company and that the only work of engineers is to supervise the work and assured the public that all the allegations levied will be investigated.
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