Over 200 Mayors, Regional Delegates and other administrative heads who have powers to execute or oversee infrastructural projects such as roads, public buildings and others, have been told that the Ministry of Public Works is the sole State Technical Project Manager.

This new policy was explained to the Mayors and other officials at a one-day awareness and sensitisation workshop in Limbe organized by the Ministry of Public Works.

Participants and stakeholders were drawn from the Northwest, West, Littoral and Southwest Region. The workshop was a follow-up to one that was held in Yaounde organised by the Minister with participants from other Regions.

The gathering was opened on behalf of the Minister Patrice Amba Salla, by the Secretary General at the Southwest Governor’s Office, Clement Fon Ndikum.

He stated that the gathering was organised following a Prime Ministerial Decree No. 2014/3863/PM of November 21, 2014,which re-affirms the fact that the Ministry of Public Works is the sole State Master Engineer in charge of overseeing the technical quality management of all State infrastructures and projects, irrespective of which Ministry or institution that has been assigned to carry out the project.

“Technical project management refers to all operations which consists in assisting project owners in the execution of different infrastructural projects, by indicating to them the stages and itineraries to be followed, while stipulating the standards and technical specifications to be observed by intervening parties in the conduct of technical studies and in the execution of the works,” Ndikum stated.

The new drive comes at the backdrop of a seemingly anarchical situation in the management of projects owing to the fact that almost every Ministry has its own technical experts or technicians. Nidkum said the PM’s decree seeks to harmonise the works of all intervening technical engineers but, at the same time, making it clear that the Ministry of Public Works remains the master engineer with the sole right to all State structural projects.

“In our specific context, this call is more justified by many constraints which constitute hindrances in the proper execution of projects such as disparities in contract award procedures. Another hindrance or drawback in the execution of public contracts has been the fact that the “calendar for the execution of projects” for some time now, is no longer being respected.

Besides, there have been late mobilisation of counterpart funds, non-respect of standards in the construction of infrastructure; reason why many structures, today, start developing cracks on the walls even before they are completed or not long after being completed.

Thus,the PM now wants Minister Amba Salla to take up his responsibilities, let his construction engineers, henceforth, use their technical savvy on every infrastructural project from scratch to finish.

This, he said, was to ensure that Cameroon’s march to become an emerging nation by 2035 can be guaranteed with firm structures and not half-baked structures mounted on wobbly foundations.

The Minister’s address, read by the Secretary General, was followed by experts presentations, aimed at enabling participants have a better understanding of the PM’s decree and what will be expected of them.

The presentations were followed by questions and answers. Participants sort to know what shall be the role of the engineers in the other Ministries such as the Ministry of Secondary Education.

Besides, some of the participants said, for the Ministry of Public Works to succeed as the “unique engineer”, it needs to have all its services fully equipped materially, financially and with personnel.

“Sometimes when you go out to the field, you meet a Public Works engineer, sometimes alone or with only his driver. Sometimes, they are unable to get to a project site because they don’t even have a vehicle of their own to ferry them to the project site,” one of the participating Mayors observed.