HARBEL, Margibi – A civil society group in Margibi is threatening to sue the county authorities over their failure to fund and construct several projects that were approved in a county setting resolution.

One of these projects is the fencing of the Harbel Multilateral High School.

The chairman for Campaigners for Change’s Margibi branch, Augustine Brooks, placed the blame for the delay in fencing the school’s facility on Rep. Ballah Zayzay of Margibi’s third district.

Brooks accused Zayzay of announcing that the money had been allotted for the project without any subsequent work being commenced on it.

“Honorable Zayzay has always told us that the project construction project would kick off soon,”  he said.

But Zayzay has denied making any such statements although he said he has continued to advocate for conditions to be improved at Harbel Multilateral.

“I have not said anywhere that there has been money allotted to fence Harbel Multilateral,” he said.

Zayzay told reporters that the school’s fencing, in addition to the construction of a bridge to link Dolo Town, and Unification City, were decisions made during a county sitting. However, although the two projects were signed in a resolution nearly three years ago, they have not been funded by the county.

Besides the fencing of the Harbel Multilateral High School, Brooks drew attention to several other projects in the district that have been abandoned.

“Since more than two years, the construction of town halls in Dolo Town and Unification City have remained abandoned by these people,” he noted.

Margibi’s Superintendent John Buway has previously attributed the delay of projects to budget constraints.

Buway said in some cases, like the town hall project in Unification city, contractors have received money for the project and refused to work. He said. “Up to now, there are cases where contractors took monies and did not do the work,” he noted.

According to him, the construction of the town hall in Unification City was halted on the order of citizens on claims that the hall was too small.

Since construction ceased, Buway said the county authorities have agreed to expand the size of the hall, but said he has not received access to additional money for the expansion. He added that the contractor has also not refunded an initial amount of more than US$100,000 received and is also yet to resume construction works on the project.

Similarly, the contractor assigned to the town hall project in Dolo town did not fully complete the works but has left the project incomplete.

He said the county plans to go after those contractors who received money to implement projects and have not completed their works.

Featured photo by Gbatemah Senah