News
Secretaries delaying big projects; Government wants them sacked
A cabinet paper is to be submitted shortly seeking an investigation on ministry secretaries who have failed to implement cabinet decisions or delayed executing the decisions.
The move comes following inquiries made from the Cabinet office over delays in implementing some of the important projects which had been approved by the Cabinet over the past few years.
A senior Cabinet Minister said that inquires had revealed that though the Cabinet office had passed down the decisions for implementation, some of the secretaries had held back certain projects without informing the minister concerned.
“We hope to discuss with the President as the appointment of ministry secretaries is a responsibility of the President,” he said.
The senior minister said the objective of bringing the Cabinet paper was to remove some of the secretaries who had failed to implement projects approved earlier.
He said that in some of the cases the ministry secretaries had failed to take follow-up action such as approval for loans, permission to implement the project from relevant agencies, obtaining co-operation from other ministries and agencies.
Among several instances of the delay of projects has been one related to the integrated Tourism Digital Platform on a Public Private Partnership Model. It had been delayed without an explanation.
The project was described to be critical for the country’s security, free visa scheme for tourists and the development of the tourism industry.
There had been issues in several other ministries, including the Lands Ministry where projects had been held up.