JEDDAH: Mayor of Jeddah Adel Fakieh has said mistakes were made in the construction of some of Jeddah's new flyovers as a result of the authorities rushing work so as not to lose allotted funds for the projects.
"There were mistakes in the construction of some bridges in Jeddah as we were keen to quickly begin work fearing the lapse of funds allocated in the general budget for the projects at the close of the budget year," Fakieh said, adding that studies for the flyovers were also rushed.
The mayor made the comments while reviewing a strategic plan for the development of Jeddah at a meeting of the Society for District Centers at the Hilton Hotel on Sunday. "We were racing against time to implement the projects lest we lose the funds allocated in the budget," he told the meeting. He said the city is in need of SR20 billion for street cleaning, road maintenance and the construction of commercial centers. He said an external auditor would audit the municipality's final accounts this year.
Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, assistant director for public relations and media at the municipality, told Arab News that the mayor's statement follows the discovery of mistakes at a number of bridges presently under construction. He added that the mistakes were corrected through the cooperation of concerned parties, including the Traffic Department.
Al-Ghamdi said the Ministry of Finance usually links approvals for new projects with the completion of ongoing ones. Ali Al-Tawati, chairman of the Department of Accounting and Finance at King Abdulaziz University (KAU), said the concept of canceling projects if allocated funds were not used is an unusual practice according to a principle commonly known as "zero-base budget". Al-Tawati called for a review of the practice, which is "full of loopholes" and causing projects to be rushed. "We should give enough time for the study and execution of projects so as to secure a quality outcome at the end of the day," he said. He further stressed the need to review the practice, citing the demolishing and rebuilding of a part of the bridge on the intersection between Palestine Road and King Fahd Road because of construction errors. "This can be avoided by earmarking separate provisions for studies and by not limiting the implementation of projects to a certain time," he said.
Habibullah Turkistani, undersecretary of the Institute of Research and Marketing Consultancies at KAU, said the fear of losing funds is no justification for mistakes in projects. "The surplus in budget resulting from not using allocated funds will be spent appropriately in the next budget," he explained. Ahmad Banafie, supervisor general of projects at the municipality, said SR250 million was saved by not implementing a number of projects to build underpasses in the city. "This money could be used in the construction of more bridges and in rectifying the technical and engineering errors detected in some of the new projects," he added.
By Muhammad Humaidan
© Arab News 2009
