Regional and County government officers supervising the President’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) development projects have been advised to deploy a synergy of stakeholders’ approach to expedite their completion.
Principal Administrative Secretary at the office of the Prime Cabinet secretary, Juliana Yiapan while touring Nyamira County to assess progress and status of BETA projects said that government project supervisors who work in silos impede steady progress of projects meant to benefit citizens.
“BETA projects are meant to enable efficient service delivery of government services to ordinary citizens down to their villages and a multi-agency approach in supervising progress of these projects to completion is the best approach since it is easy to solve any bottlenecks which may be experienced when the projects are still under construction,” Ms Yiapan said.
“The Public Private Partnerships (PPP) which the government decided to embrace in order to fast track implementation of these projects needs to be mutual. The contractors, who are the private partners undertaking the construction works of these projects, must be closely supervised by the government to get value for money. It is professional when supervision of BETA projects is done through a multi-agency approach, a show of good will which gives the private partner confidence and trust that he is fully supported by the government,” the Principal Administrative Secretary stated.
She warned project supervisors against shifting blame or giving flimsy excuses when projects are stalled or contactors undertake substandard works without being corrected. Their supervision objective is to ensure that the government’s interests are taken care of and resources optimally utilized when implementing projects.
“Escalate any matter which is beyond your mandate to be rectified before it gets out of hand, the County Commissioners and Regional Commissioners are more than ready to coordinate project implementation supervisors and contractors cordially implement their projects within the stipulated timelines without any unnecessary impeding circumstances,” she urged.
Yiapan highly commended officers from the Government Delivery Unit (GDS) under the office of the Chief of Staff in the state department of Performance and Delivery Management at the Ministry of Public Service for their tireless efforts in monitoring, evaluating and timely reports on the status of BETA projects not just in Nyamira County but the entire country.
She confirmed that their reports have enabled Cabinet Secretaries in all government ministries to have a true picture of the status of each project and necessary actions to be initiated to ensure the projects are fully completed and commissioned to offer services to targeted beneficiaries.
Nyanza regional commissioner, Ms, Flora Mworoa affirmed that the Ministry of Internal Security and National Administration part of the high delegation monitoring BETA projects in the region affirmed that County Commissioners within her region of jurisdiction are more than ready to coordinate and mobilize relevant stakeholders towards ensuring that recommended standards of BETA projects are completed to help this country’s citizens who are the target beneficiaries.
Ms Yiapan confirmed that most BETA projects in Nyamira County are in various percentages of completion, she assured that the County Management Implementation Oversight Committee (CMIOC) chaired by the county commissioner will closely fast track all these projects to ensure they attain the 100% completion status.
“Nyamira County commissioner is fully mandated to know the status of all BETA Projects in the county. Be they stalled, ongoing, completed, awaiting commissioning, and those which require intervention by the CMIOC to be completed. I’m optimistic that a combined effort by all of us will enable our President to deliver on his BETA manifesto to citizens of this country”. Ms. Yiapan affirmed.
Development projects in Nyamira Courtesy of President William Ruto’s BETA manifesto include; upgrading to bitumen standards and maintenance of four 33.3 KM interchange roads in Kitutu Masaba Constituency which are: Gekano-Nyangori-Rigoma-Amabuko, Motemomwamu-Ngenyi-manga, Gekano-Girango, Gekano-Moturmesi-Birongo roads worth 33.3 KM road projects worth Sh 1,289,574,432.49.
The other project is the construction of a level four Keroka hospital in Kitutu Masaba constituency worth Sh400, 000,000 which has an in-patient block (accident and emergency block), theatre and a consult clinic. The third involves the Construction of modern Nyansiongo market in Borabu constituency which included market sheds, Ajira centre, Peripheral kiosks, ablution blocks and a boundary wall worth Sh194, 670,000.
The fourth mega BETA project is the construction of an aggregation and Industrial park in West Mugirango constituency worth Sh 750,000,000.
By Deborah Bochere
