Parkop salutes Alu as new man gets nod for city job

The National Capital District Commission has a new city manager in Bernard Kipit who took over from Leslie Alu yesterday.
NCD Governor Powes Parkop said the city was not what it used to be because of the efforts of the outgoing city manager.
“The city has transformed and has to keep transforming. That is a challenge for the incoming city manager,” Parkop said.
Parkop said Alu was the longest serving city manager.
“In the 11 years Alu served NCDC, we achieved a lot. We were looking forward to give him a fourth term in office had he not suffered a stroke two years ago,” Parkop said.
Meanwhile, Parkop said Kipit was no stranger to the office, but was entering at a time when there were a lot of challenges.
Alu said during his 11 years of service, a lot had been achieved including:
• Negotiating funding support from the Government and bringing in partners like National Fisheries Authority, Motor Vehicles Insurance Limited, Exim Bank of China, Independent Public Business Corporation and Bank South Pacific (BSP) to invest a total of K1.42 billion on infrastructure projects in the city; and,
• Structured financing arrangement for the reconstruction of the Hubert Murray Stadium through a bridging loan from BSP and servicing the loan through the sale proceeds of the Sea Park land.
“With those financing structures, we were able to deliver the Kumul Flyover, Kookaburra Street, Morea Tobo Road (5-Mile to Jackson Airport), Hubert Murray Highway (5-Mile to Erima), Sir William Skate Highway, Erima to 9-Mile Road, MoreaTobo Road to Flyover Road, Gordon industrial areas roads (Stage 1 and 2) and Paga Hill ring road.
“There are many more, but those are a few to mention,” Alu said.
“I did not want to have an image of taking the city forward being slowed down due to my health condition.
“The city’s interest is greater than me holding on to the position, therefore I had to make this tough decision of an early retirement,” he said.
Incoming city manager Kipit said what the outgoing city manager had achieved was tremendous and the benchmark set was very high.
“I will have to strive to outclass his achievement,” Kipit said.