PM's road projects inquiry a trick

Former Prime Minister, Sir Mekere Morauta, said today the call by Prime Minister O”Neill to inquire into two major road projects was a trick to fool the people. On 04 October the media reported the Prime Minister had called for an assessment of the pricing of the Lade-Nadzab superhighway (K800 million) and Togoba-Kisenepoi road (K399 million).

“These contracts have only recently been awarded. So the Prime Minister has all the information. The contracts would had to have gone through the Works Department, Central Supply and Tenders Board, and been approved by the National Executive Council. So if there is something funny in the pricing of these contracts, he already knows about it because as Chairman of NEC he is the boss of the approval process.”

"The Prime Minister is playing games to try to fool the public.”

Sir Mekere said that these were not the only projects that were the subject of street talk. “The Hubert Murray Highway works between NBC and Six Mile, the K1 billion road projects for the National Capital District recently approved by NEC, the Pacific Games Village contract, the Cleland pool contract, are all being talked about on the street”

“People don’t want to hear the PM saying he is “enquiring” into these, when he already has all the information available on them. What people want is for the Prime Minister to immediately request independent bodies such as the Fraud Squad and the Ombudsman Commission to investigate these contracts.”

"People know what is going on, and they want action, not deflection through flowery words and pretence."