By MALUM NALU
Former Lae MP and senior statesman Bart Philemon has
described the K140 million for just 20km of Lae roads from 2008-2012 as the
“biggest corruption” case in Papua New Guinea for which a lot of prominent
figures in both politics and business should hang their heads in shame.
Speaking in Lae and later showing some of the shoddy road
works, Philemon described the Lae roads as “the biggest scam, an open scam”.
The road leading from the old airport to town is blocked off on Sunday, Nov 17. |
Butibam Road along Voco Point remains to be completed. |
Signboard for a new road contract but no explanation for previous
contracts.
|
The shoddy dustbowl at China Town. |
Meanwhile, K100 million was allocated in the 2013
budget for Lae roads, but has not been spent to date apart from K12 million
already paid out to some “contractors”, and yet another K100 million has been budgeted for 2014.
“Talking about corruption, Lae roads is the biggest
corruption,” he said.
“They dismantled the proper tendering process and
they involved this certificate of inexpediency, so they could pick and choose
which contractors.
“This was before the 2012 elections.
“The first contract was awarded in 2008 after the 2007
elections.
“(Former Prime Minister Sir Michael) Somare promised
down at the stadium, during his campaign, after Somare and I fell out, that he
would get rid of me in Lae.
“He promised K50 million for Lae roads.
“After the 2007 elections, they dismantled the
normal tendering process and involved certificates of inexpediency, so they
could handpick whoever they wanted.”
“They picked six contractors, Papua New Guineans
contractors.
“Something happened and after 12 months they took
that contract away.”
Philemon said the Finance Department administered
funds for the Lae roads after that, dishing out contracts to a motley crew of
contractors, some of whom never had a clue about road construction.
“After a couple of years, they got NME to be
engineering supervisor, but every contractor’s original tender price exceeded
by more than 20% to 60%, 100%,” he said.
“From what I understand, any government contract
that varies in price more than 20%, a new contract has to be awarded.
“By 2011, they built less than 15km of road for K130
million.
“We managed to get an investigation team
established.
“Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc was chairman of that.
“The investigation report was done, there were a lot
of questions raised, very serious questions of governance issues.
“Cabinet looked at the submission and deferred to
Operation Task Force Sweep, and we haven’t heard anything since then.
“During last elections, a lot of that money went
back to the leading political parties for campaign.
“I don’t know who’s in charge, of the roads, it’s
causing great inconvenience to people of Lae, and some of the roads have been
closed for a long period of time.
“It’s hard to describe.
“Up to now they’ve spent K130-K140 million but you don’t
see a reflection of the money there.
“When I left at the end of 2012, there was 20km of
road built for about K130 million.
“This was the first stage.
“There were six contractors, there was no engineering
design for the road, there was no bill of quantity, and there was no
engineering supervisor.”
No comments:
Post a Comment