Dept called to release K2.9mil for project fees

National

WORKS and Highways Department and Japanese International Corporation Agency (Jica) are working on capacity development for a road maintenance programme, department executive director (operations) Jason Vela says.
“Department managers and Jica experts had been working on identifying the pilot project sites for more than a year,” he said.
“From now, we will not make any changes to the position of our provincial staff as it confuses the job.”
Department executive director (network planning and design standards) Gibson Ali Holemba had asked National Planning and Monitoring Department to release the K2.9 million commitment to start the pilot projects in Madang, Western, East New Britain and West Sepik.
Holemba said the program had a timeframe and if delayed “we will miss the opportunity”.
“The programme was made in an agreement between the two countries through bilateral relationship,” he added.
Jica team leader Koishikawa Kazuharu said road capacity development for road maintainance in the targeted provinces was delayed because of the delay in funding.