By John Muyamba
RUNDU – Kavango West Governor Sirkka Ausiku last Friday started inspecting government projects in the region to assess their progress.
Ausiku started the inspections after she held a briefing with officials from government ministries and agencies as well as stakeholders responsible for Kavango West on the implementation of government programmes, activities and projects.
Ausiku said her office meets with officials from line ministries and stakeholders for them to brief her regarding their projects and programmes in Kavango West.
“We had the first meeting in June/July this year and last week we had our second meeting where they came to brief me together with other stakeholders like church and political leaders and also constituency development committees because they are the ones that live in the constituencies where these projects are being implemented. All ministries came to brief me about the progress of their capital projects as well as their programmes,” stated the governor.
“As a governor I cannot just listen and sit in my office so I took it upon myself to explore the projects to see the progress and I will continue until our next meeting,” Ausiku added.
The visit started on Friday last week at Mupini and Bunya health centres where the health ministry awarded a tender to a local contractor to erect two three-bedroom apartments to accommodate nurses, and moved to Mahenzere Combined School which is currently being renovated.
Ausiku said: “My observation is that some officials in the meeting said that their projects were done but here we are and some are far from completion.”
She said the Ministry of Works and Transport is not involved in these projects and that they don’t monitor or know what capital projects are being undertaken in Kavango West.
“What I know is that every capital project the ministry of works is supposed to be involved in, but here they are not. You can see where we started, our local officials from the ministry of works are not involved or do not know about the project. Contractors work directly with the head office of the ministries that give them tenders,” she said.
Ausiku was also disappointed in the progress of the renovation of Mahenzere Combined School as it is still far from completed.
“I got the report the school’s renovations were completed on the 8th of December but they are not, and soon schools will reopen and that will be a problem. I am visiting projects that I was told were finished. I am planning to go around all government projects,” Ausiku said.