MINISTER within the Local Government Ministry, Norman Whittaker, yesterday said that steps have already been taken to rectify the road rehabilitation issues that residents are faced with at Port Kaituma and Kwakwani, but the inclement weather delayed the start of those works.
Whittaker said in a press conference yesterday that there are several issues that can be resolved with some dialogue among parties.
“That’s the situation with the council. In the meantime, services that should be provided suffer because some of the staff are out there, but we continue to monitor (the situation) because we would wish that the workers resume (duty) so that the work of the council can continue,” he stated.
He said that, in the Port Kaituma, there are reports of over 50 persons protesting the state of the internal roads in the area while the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region One, the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Natural Resource and Regional Development have all identified in each area specific internal and main roads that they would wish to see being extensively rehabilitated and upgraded.
The minster attributed delay in the start of rehabilitative works on the inclement weather, stating that only remedial works could have been undertaken so far.
“We would appreciate that road works are better done in sunny weather conditions. So even though people might want it to be done now, it would be a waste of taxpayers’ money if we do it in rainy weather; and that has been a contributing factor that we haven’t been able to do anything about,” Whittaker highlighted.
He said that roads would have to be done as a matter of urgency, and within a week’s time works will commence in this regard.
Whittaker deemed untrue a perception that government has to be prodded by protest to take any action. He said plans had already been finalized for road works to be done.
“I wish to make that clear, and I know out there is this perception that when we begin to roll with the work, people say we are responsive only to protest; but I want the press to know that these works were planned and were on our programme, but due to the weather, we could not fix these roads in inclement weather conditions,” he reiterated.
According to the minister, works undertaken in inclement weather would only be a waste of time, and the roads would deteriorate easily, once more putting the region through the same situation if care isn’t exercised.
“They (the road works) would only last a couple of months, and hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money would go down the line; so those roads are being addressed, but step by step,” Whittaker emphasised.
On the issue of Kwakwani, and the selection of persons to deal with that community’s affairs, he disclosed that meetings were held with the regional chairman and vice chairman, along with councillors and the mayor, to discuss the way forward in this regard.
“The press would know I was in Linden a few days ago, and during a meeting with the vice and regional chairman, some councillors the mayor and others on several other issues, I did raise concerns (about the spectacle of having a parallel IMC in that community) because that’s unheard of. I did advise the chairman not to go down that road,” Whittaker said.
However, the minister said a meeting was held at Kwakwani on Wednesday, as is evident from reports in the press, but the Local Government Ministry has not been officially informed of this.
“I don’t know who supervised the elections, but what I do know is that the Local Government Ministry was not part of it. We recognise the (duly installed) IMC because that body was installed and appointed in keeping with the procedures and legislation. We did not break any laws, and therefore that is the only constitutional body that we would recognize handling the affairs of Kwakwani.”