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Governemnt officials have been urged to step up their co-operation so that councillors’ projects come to fruition before their term expired.
Several projects on the Muharraq Municipal Council’s docket have been put on hold for want of proper authorisation from several departments of the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry.
Councillor Ahmed Al Meghawi claimed the entire bureaucratic process can take more than two years and some of the projects may even be inherited by the next council, damaging the reputation of the current council.
“The space is there, the budget is there, the issue is the frustrating number of procedures.”
Explaining the red tape, Mr Al Meghawi said once the council presents a proposal to the works department, it is transferred to the urban planning department, and then back to the works department which then refers it to the municipalities department.
From there it goes to the towns and villages development department which has to request land from the municipality, which sends an engineer to inspect the site and come up with a design, which can take up to three months, after which the design has to be approved by the municipal council.
After approval it goes to the municipalities affairs and then to the minister for approval who then passes it the department that actually executes the plan.
“That’s a huge circle of procedures that holds everything up,” said the councillor.
“Since we have a budget we can spend this year we should be able to use it, but because of the delays that budget goes to the next year.
“We have so many walkways that are on hold; they just need one signature for it to be cleared, then we can deal with the procedures.
“We have our own engineers who can come up with designs and we should be able to upload these so they can be approved quickly and we can start on the procedures.
“This can easily cut the waiting time for a project to be approved by at least six months.
“We council members face this problem. We come up with proposals and do everything but by the time we receive the approval our term might end, giving people the impression that we haven’t done anything.
“I personally inherited a project from my predecessor in Arad,” said Mr Al Meghawi.
The GDN reported in March that more than half of Bahrain’s major road work projects were completed behind schedule over the past four years, according to Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf.
He told MPs that 42 projects were delayed, 33 were completed on time and three ahead of schedule from 2015 to 2019.
However, the minister attributed the delays to factors such as major design changes, clashes with underground services and lapses by contractors.
ghazi@gdn.com.bh
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