Delays in payments contributed to the slowdown, in 2023, of the pace of execution of some works included in the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), in Cambambe, Cuanza-Norte province.
These are the construction works of the Mother and Child Center and the completion of the rehabilitation of the municipal hospital. The construction inspector for the Mother and Child Center, Edson Tavares, explained that the works began in September 2022, with an initial duration of 12 months.
Irregularities in the settlement of measurement reports affected compliance with the project schedule, which was completed at 34 percent.
He mentioned that there are invoices for this same work worth 500 million kwanzas, which remain pending in the National Treasury’s system for issuing withdrawal orders.
This situation is leaving the contractor without liquidity to make expenses. Edson Tavares was speaking to ANGOP on the sidelines of a meeting that the vice-governor for the Technical and Infrastructure sector of Cuanza-Norte, Mendonça Luís, held with the contractors, in Cambambe.
The meeting served to assess the current state of execution of these works in that municipality. The works to complete the rehabilitation of the municipal hospital, which have a physical completion rate of 84 percent and a financial level of 82 percent, have not benefited from payments since December 2022, according to those in charge, Domingos Miguel.
The situation led to the suspension of work, which might lead to the vandalization or degradation of some equipment already installed.
The works began in 2014, under the responsibility of the provincial government, and were subsequently included in the PIIM project portfolio of the municipal administration of Cambambe, and resumed in 2018, following successive stoppages.
WAs themselves are budgeted at 593 million, 960 thousand and 41 kwanzas for the works and 29 million, 698 thousand for inspection. For his part, the director of the Study, Planning and Statistics Office of the Cambambe administration, Pedro Estes Kilombo, recognized the contractors’ complaints as being fair.
He highlighted that the meeting recommended the creation of intersectoral mechanisms to facilitate greater interaction with the Ministry of Finance, through the National Directorate of Public Investments (DNIP), in view of the urgent need for these social facilities to come into operation.
He mentioned that these constraints also result from the difficulties that many contractors have in interpreting instructions from the Ministry of Finance.
In Cambambe, 10 projects are registered with PIIM, of which two are centrally subordinated and one is provincial, as well as two actions, linked to the education, health, basic sanitation, housing and public security sectors.
The seven projects and the two local execution actions are budgeted at one billion, 969 million, 920 thousand and 421 kwanzas.