02 Mar 2016

The Minister of Lands and Housing, Mr Prince Maele, says Sowa Town projects, which were abandoned by a contractor will be completed in the 2016/17 financial year.

Addressing a special full council meeting at the town on Monday February 29, Minister Maele said though he had received a report from the leadership regarding the projects, touring the projects gave him a clear picture of how much work needed to be done to rectify the mistakes.

He further noted that there had been an outcry from the town leadership that project failures affected development and growth of the place.

Mr Maele said 202 Self Help Housing Agency (SHHA) plots would be allocated, adding that such measure was aimed at fast tracking progress for the projects, which had been lying idle for many years having started around 2008.

In addition, Minister Maele emphasised that this was not the time to point fingers, but rather a time in which those involved should see to it that there would be accountability.

He nonetheless noted that P72 million was paid to the contractor, who later abandoned the projects and was liquidated.

Such a thing, he said, should be a lesson to the authorities and those tasked to manage projects to see to it that a similar mistake would not happen again.

Furthermore, he said he was going to make sure that on a monthly basis, the team tasked for the Sowa project should give him an update so that he could be up to date on every progress made.

He nonetheless implored the council leadership to also take ownership of the project so that at every level, they would know what was happening since they were the ones closer and could easily monitor the progress.

The minister also emphasised that implementation should not only be placed on the hands of the contractor but for all concerned stakeholders so that at the time of need to account all should be in a better position to do so.

On other updates, Minister Maele said in the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP), there were no projects for Sowa. Ends