With several arguments especially on the road infrastructure of which members of Parliament from the opposition have been debating, one thing that came out was the issue of reform in improving feeder roads to ease traffic congestion.
Hon. James Allie (SLPP) of Constituency 081, Moyamba district said that so much praise has been showered on the APC government because of the road infrastructure. He referred them to the handing over speech of the late President Kabbah where he said all the roads that were completed by the APC, were outlined and funds were being sought for those projects.
“I want to remind the Minister of Finance that feasibility studies were carried out sometime ago in the central business of Freetown for the Malama Thomas Street, Connaught, Kingtom Roads and the SOS and Services school road, these are all ways of reducing congestion in this town,” he said.
He questioned the mandate between the SLRA and RMFA, which the latter is responsible for the rehabilitation and maintenance of all roads in the country, and the RMFA is responsible for the mobilisation of resources for the maintenance of these roads.
“But what we are seeing now is that there is a lot of interplay between the two. There should be a clear cut understanding of the roles of these two authorities because we are seeing RMFA awarding contracts for the monitoring and constructions of road.” He said the Moyamba junction road was not mentioned in the Minister’s speech as the contract was terminated about three months ago. In 2007, the Mokolo-Rotifunk-Moyamaba Road was contracted but was also terminated in 2008, and there was a promise for the rehabilitation of the Shenge Road but up till now they have not heard anything.
Hon. Francis A. Kaisamba (SLPP) of Constituency 010, Kenema district, said that even though some strides have been made in the roads sector the cost at which they were done remains an unanswered question.
The government has deliberately marginalized his district. “There are APC people there also. You are also suffering your members there because you think it is our stronghold. The Deputy Minister of Finance and Majority Leader are all from Kenema.”
Service delivery should be equal. “If you give Makeni one kilometer, the same should apply to other towns. We are all contributing to the road users fund. Over two years all contractors were summoned here and they were bold to say that they don’t receive the funds but other contractors in the north are being given funds.” Hon. Aaron Koroma (APC) of Constituency 062, Tonkolili, refuted the claims by Hon. Allie saying that the rehabilitation of Moyamba Roads is being mentioned in the Budget Profile.
Funds are being provided for the construction of trunk roads funds. “Gone are the days when the Ministry of Finance is full with mediocre people, they are professionals so the budget that was laid here was done in line with international best practice.”
ZJ/8/11/17
By Zainab Joaque
Thursday November 09, 2017.