The Minister of Works and Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy, Dr. Amani Bouqmaz, met representatives of 7 embassies in the country at the Ministry of Electricity and Water building to inform them of the full vision of the road reforms that is planned for the coming periods and that the ministry is in preparation to study and contract companies.
Representatives of the embassies of the United States, South Korea, France, Turkey, Japan, China and Germany participated in this meeting.
Sources form the Ministry of Works informed that the contracting procedures by direct order with these companies is not yet detailed, noting that there is a team from the Ministry of Works that is currently preparing a list of local companies who do not have any current problems with the projects they have implemented in the past.
The sources also pointed out the need for assigning projects to international companies to carry out road maintenance work while developing, training, and raising the efficiency of the supervisory role noting that the Audit Bureau identified in its latest report 13 recommendations to address road problems. The most prominent of which is the need to support the maintenance engineering sector and road laboratories management with the necessary material resources.
The report also stated that they would ensure safety and security requirements, modern devices and equipment that keep pace with global developments in the field of paving and maintenance of roads, examining samples of improved asphalt mixture, so that it can ensure the quality of the asphalt mixtures used, which would in turn reflect positively on the efficiency of carrying out road and network maintenance work.
The report also recommended reviewing the general framework for the improved asphalt mixture, so that measurement indicators are set for it by the means of specific work procedures for each organizational unit concerned with the implementation and maintenance of roads, whether in the Public Authority for Roads and Land Transport or the Ministry of Public Works.
The sources further added that, “Going ahead with the completion of contracting procedures with international companies without implementing these recommendations will not achieve the desired results hence local companies with great experience in the field of road maintenance, whether inside or outside Kuwait, can compete with the prices that will be offered by international companies as well.