Road rehabilitation works in the Venilale administrative post in Baucau municipality have been abandoned due to a lack of government checks and controls, it has been claimed.
National MP Manuel Castro said he was disappointed that construction works started by the Estrada Bo’ot Company last year (2015) in Venilale had been discontinued.
“This company dug 5km of the road [and] then it was abandoned,” he said in Parliament.
In May, the Commission E (responsible for infrastructure, transport, and communication) requested further information from the Baucau Directorate of Public Transport as to why the works had been stopped, but the reasons provided were unclear.
According to Castro, technicians had been due to lay the asphalt in Venilale, but it was then returned to Dili for use on roads in the capital instead.
As the owner of the project, the government should improve controls for works being undertaken across the country.
“It’s the responsibility of the government and they should look at it (the issue),” he said.
Meanwhile, national MP Albina Marçal said it was an ongoing issue that MPs were constantly questioning without any solution.
“There is no change and the government never takes this into consideration,” he said.
However, the Minister of Public Works, Transport and Communication, Gastão Sousa, said the government had been making efforts to respond to concerns, but this did not mean that it could fix all issues at once.
“We are making an effort to solve the issues and it slowly will be solved,” he said.
