JEDDAH, 20 January 2008 — Mayor Adel Fakieh blamed his undersecretary for constructions and projects, Ibrahim Kutubkhana, for the inordinate delay in the completion of various development projects in the city.
Fakieh held Kutubkhana accountable for the poor implementation of vital development projects after reading the latest report on the achievements of the construction and projects division over the past four months.
The mayor said he was annoyed because of what he described as very poor achievement in commissioning new projects despite the contracts were awarded to specialized private companies and a large part of the money was paid in advance.
The mayor did not mince his words when commenting on the style of work at the constructions division of his office.
“Work on several projects stopped because the undersecretary’s office did not do anything to overcome the obstacles that blocked progressof the works,” Al-Madinah newspaper yesterday quoted the mayor as saying. “It was also because the undersecretary neglected to invoke legal action against companies that did not comply with contractual obligations.”
The mayor said the delays resulted from not informing contractors quickly on the location of job sites and not providing materials in time. He said contracts often expired even before work got started.
The mayor demanded the office of the undersecretary to remove all the obstacles that hindered the handing over of the sites and reminded the official about a previous order to set up a committee to study and remove the obstacles that caused delays in the implementation of projects.
The mayor issued the order after a complaint from the Ministry of Transport that the Jeddah Municipality was causing delays in expressway projects aimed at linking smaller cities to Jeddah. The complaint also referred to delays in laying phone, electrical and water lines.
Mofreh Al-Zahrani, director of the Roads and Transportation Administration in the Makkah Region, said the Ministry of Transportation was currently implementing a number of projects in the region at a total cost of SR1.23 billion.
The projects aim at upgrading the road network with more ring roads in the cities of the region besides linking the towns and villages.
The most important projects among them are the first phase of the new ring road in Jeddah and completion of the Jeddah-Laith-Qunfuda highway and the Jamoum-Zaimah road.
