Awesa: Start road maintenance

THE K5 million Lae-Nadzab road maintenance work in Morobe will start immediately, Minister for Works and Implementation Francis Awesa said over the weekend.
Awesa said he only learnt from the concerns raised by the business community in Lae that work had not started.
“I secured K5 million in September last year but the bureaucrats have had been sitting on it for 12 months.
“I do not know why that happened,” he said.
He said he had instructed the Department of Works and the Central Supplies and Tenders Board (CSTB) to immediately start on the maintenance work as the road was an important lifeline for the people and businesses from the industrial city of Lae.
He said it was one of the priority projects when he became the works minister but the Department of Works and the CSTB had been sitting on the funds for a year.
Awesa conveyed his apologies to the business community, the provincial government, the people and the travelling public for the delay and inconveniences caused.
He said since securing the funds he went into the elections and did not follow up until he learnt of it through the concerns raised by the business community in Lae through the media.
He said he had now directed the department to immediately negotiate with the National Airport Corporation and the CSTB to get the tenders out and get the project going.
He assured the people of Morobe that the maintenance work would start immediately as he wanted it to be completed before the end of the year.
He said road infrastructure was one of the top policies of the O’Neill government and as minister of works he wanted such major impact infrastructure to be done properly so that it could last.