MEMBER of Parliament (MP) for East Malaita and Leader of the Parliamentary Opposition group Manasseh Maelanga welcomes the move to re-establish the public works department (PWD) under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MID).
MID Permanent Secretary (PS) Steven Maesiola expressed his intention to bring back the department to purposely look after the road work.
Speaking to the Solomon Star in an exclusive interview yesterday Mr Maelanga said it’s a right decision taken by the PS to do away with the costly practice of contracting private companies to do road maintenance work.
The idea was revealed by the PS when he appeared before the recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing where he said he will present a Cabinet paper next year to revive the department.
Mr Maesiola said it is cheap and effective in terms of attending to fix pot holes and deteriorating state of the roads in Honiara and other parts of the country.
Maelanga said that is the originality of the work the ministry uses to do in the past which does not cost government like the sub-contractors.
He said even what the MPs did to purchase their own machines to construct new roads and repair existing roads is many times cheaper than contracting a private company to do the road work.
The Opposition Leader added his 5-kilometer road constructed into the highlands of East Malaita was built on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
“If we contract a private company to build the road then CDF is equivalent to nothing, because private firms put their costs in millions,” he said.
Thus, he said in terms of resource-wise it is cheaper to support the MPs who owned machines to do maintenance work in the roads within the constituencies because people can give their support for free.
“And MID can work in partnership with the constituents to improve road work in the rural areas and in the urban areas like Honiara, Auki and Gizo,” he concluded.
By AATAI JOHN LAUNGI
