By EDDIE OSIFELO
MINISTRY of Infrastructure Development has blamed the internal processes in the Ministry of Finance and Treasury for the delay of upgrading the deteriorating roads in Honiara City.
This was after the public accused the government for not maintaining the road on the city’s highway from White River to Alligator Creek and the feeder roads in the outskirts, since last year.
MID Permanent Secretary, Stephen Maesiola said the process in the Finance is very slow, because the Compliance team could not approve the tenders after the competition of scoping study, so that the contractors could commence their work on the roads.
He said it is not MID’s problem that contributes to the slow maintenance of the roads.
As part of the addressing the issue, Maesiola said MID, Ministry of Finance and Treasury and Office of Prime Minister and Cabinet will meet today to iron the out issue.
He said in an emergency situation like this, some of the processes in the Finance should be fast-racked to allow work to continue rather than waiting for months.
Further to that, Maesiola said the three Ministries will also discuss the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Land and Maritime Connectivity project, to rehabilitate the road from Point Cruz to White River.
He said this is to see whether to start the work before the Pacific Games or next year.
Moreover, Maesiola said the upgrade of the second phase of the Kukum Highway from Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources to Lungga Bridge, and from Lungga bridge to Henderson Airport, still continues.
Also, three contractors, EMCO Pacific (SI) Limited, Solomon Sheet Steel and Xiao have carried out temporarily work on the deteriorating roads in Honiara already.
