United for Safer Roads: Regional Directors Join Forces to Revolutionize Road Network Management

The Ministry of Infrastructure is organizing a workshop for the harmonization of practices for the benefit of its regional directors between October 21 and 26, 2024 in Bobo-Dioulasso. The work takes place in the meeting room of the Hauts-Bassins regional infrastructure directorate.

The Ministry of Infrastructure wants to maintain the road network and tracks in good condition. In order to achieve this objective, a maintenance strategy was implemented which had been identified by the return of awarding contracts for routine maintenance work in the region as well as the delegation of project management to regional directorates. The implementation of this strategy requires better coordination of activities and harmonization of practices in each region. It was to meet these challenges that thirteen regional directors of the Burkina Faso Infrastructure Administration met in Bobo-Dioulasso for a work session. According to Michel Kafando, Director of Legal Affairs and Litigation (DAJC) of the Ministry of Infrastructure, “the general objective of this work session is to share and harmonize good practices for managing the road network”. According to him, thanks to a new reform the Ministry of Infrastructure has decided to entrust the awarding and execution of public contracts for routine maintenance to the regions. “This means that the responsibility of regional management is now very large in relation to these markets. After a few months of implementing this new practice, the regional directors felt it was important for them to come together to agree so that there would not be too many difficulties. The process of transferring procurement to the region was motivated by burdensomeness due to the importance of the contracts to be awarded to the Directorate of Public Procurement (DMP) of the Ministry,” explained Mr. Kafando
On average 120 to 135 markets per year
And this expert in legal matters adds that the DMP maintains 120 to 135 contracts a year on average. The normal maintenance markets were a huge problem with the importance of the files to analyze, analyze and publish. This situation caused so much delay that there was an overlap at one point. For the 2023 budget year for example, Michel Kafando indicated that towards the end of the year contracts could be awarded and implemented in year n+1. However, with this decentralization, each Regional Director controls his part. “It’s more or less reliable and fluid,” he said. Several points will be discussed during this work session. This relates to the legal aspect of managing contracts, the conditions for terminating and closing contracts and then exchange, the financial aspect of managing contracts and sharing experience on the process of awarding routine maintenance contracts. Exchanges will follow all these communications. Wendpanga Hyacinthe Ilboudo, Director of Public Procurement (DMP) of the Ministry of Infrastructure, noted that this workshop essentially focuses on the procedures for the implementation and settlement of public contracts. “We have already gone to show the regional directors how to award contracts, now we are in the implementation phase. So it was a good idea for us to come back and explain to them how the implementation and awarding of public contracts is done. They have specific concerns to which we, the facilitators, will give them some answers in order to reconcile points of view. The DAJC and the DMP carry out many awarding processes so we have a lot of material to be able to give tips to those who have just started awarding contracts in order to avoid some dangers associated with misunderstanding the texts,” he said. Yassia Ouédraogo, Regional Infrastructure Director of the Centre-South, has welcomed this initiative from the ministry which will allow the Regional Directors to implement this reform successfully and allow the road network to be in better shape.
Ousmane TRAORE