The Madang District Development Authority (DDA) received K10 million on 23 December for much-needed work on the town roads.
Madang MP, Bryan Kramer, intervened following the close of government accounts on 21 December to access the funding, which was appropriated under the 2020 National Budget.
Kramer, through a Memorandum of Understanding between the DDA, the Department of Works and the Department of Treasury, had the funds credited to the Madang District Development Authority who will take responsibility for the implementation of the work.
“The Madang DDA will now take charge of repairing and maintaining our town roads, as we should have a decade ago,” Kramer said.
“I assured the Government that the DDA would work in partnership with the Department of Works, and undertake a scope of works and a transparent tender process.
“The DDA engaged Kramer Ausenco on a pro-bono (free) basis to carry out a detailed scope of works. It cost nothing and was done to international standards. The report was presented to the Department of Works who agreed to release the funding to the DDA.
“I am now establishing the Madang District National Procurement Committee, and in consultation with the National Procurement Commission, we will call for tenders in early January.
“The contract will be awarded openly and transparently to a reputable civil road construction company with a proven record, who will be required to deliver work to international standards. I expect the work to commence in early February 2021.”
The first phase will include repair and maintenance of a 5.2km section of Modilon Road from Jomba Junction to the main wharf. The second phase will be the town centre roads and the third phase will include Coronation Drive and other urban streets.
Kramer also ensured that the Marape-Basil Government allocated a further K10 million to Madang District roads in the 2021 Budget to be released to the Madang DDA in the first quarter of 2021.
The MP said the Madang town roads are in a state of complete disrepair after years of neglect and the maintenance that did take place was of poor quality.
“The Department of Works is responsible for repairing and maintaining our roads. However, since I came into office in 2017, it’s become increasingly clear that neither the department nor the provincial government had any intention of doing this promptly or effectively,” stated the MP.
“As Member for Madang, I shouldn’t need to constantly pursue respective departments to ensure funding for our roads is released and work tendered. But if I hadn’t, we would have lost the funding and our roads would be in an even worse condition.
“This is how they got into such a bad state in the first place, because previous MPs were unable, or unwilling, to go to the lengths required to make sure Madang received the service it deserves.”
He thanked Prime Minister Marape and the ministers and secretaries of departments who have worked hard for the funds to be delivered to Madang.
(Picture: Kramer Report)