Over 80 per cent of Basic Education projects are reportedly abandoned in the region.

From the look of things, the North West Region is crying in the rain for the proper execution of public investment projects in the basic education sector. Abandoned, uncompleted or poorly executed are the adjectives that sum up the state of such projects since 2009.

It has emerged from a field report by   the Coalition on the Fight Against Corruption that about 80 per cent of projects in the sector have not been fully executed. In effect,  the Regional focal point of the National Coalition Against Corruption with the logistic support of the National Anti Corruption Commission  which was on the field  to size up the state  of  execution of state-funded  projects  in the region told Cameroon Tribune that “ it is not an over statement that  most of the projects have not been properly executed, with virtually many  of  the classrooms constructed  featuring cracks.”

Led by Hajiya Aicha Jigi, the five man team cris-crossed the region from May to June 22, 2013 and inspected over 100 projects. The result is that barely some 20 projects were executed.  The team did not size up the situation in Nwa, Njikwa and Ngie because the enclaved nature of the sub-divisions did not help matters. Worse still, Hajiya Aicha said that while on the field, there was little access to information about the projects while the whereabouts of most contractors could not be traced.

Away from that, the Regional follow-up committee for public investment projects   reveal  that out of 506 public investment projects worth over FCFA 19 billion for the region in 2013, only 101 have been executed  as at June 2013. It emerged from a recent session of the committee that 36 projects are ongoing while 369 have not been executed. The financial execution rate is 1.95 per cent while the physical execution rate 9.76 per cent.

During the meeting, members  questioned the criteria for the selection of projects  with  worries  why some divisions are beneficiaries of  about 80 projects while others  have as few as 42.