K66mil for maintenance: Bird

EAST Sepik Governor Allan Bird says K66 million has been budgeted for maintenance programmes in the province this year.
He said several roads, markets and bridges needed maintenance and qualified people to do quality jobs. Bird said a lot of money had gone to the Works Department to maintain the roads.
However, he said many roads deteriorated after six months.
“We need to improve the quality of this infrastructure that we fix, country has limited money, it doesn’t mean that every year we are getting the same amount of money to keep spending on the same road and have it wash out six months later,” he said.
Bird said smarter and better ways to maintain roads using things such as stabilisers should be incorporated.
“So we spend a little bit money, get the road fixed and can last for five to six years, not just do the road now and six months it is gone again,” Bird said.
He said this had been a common practice and urged all the Government agencies, especially Works Department, to play a supervisory role to monitor the work standards in the province.