The Senior Management Team in the Department of Public Works has retreated, to take stock of their progress, while at the same time handing over all the designs and Bill of Quantities (BQs) to the user Departments to effectively work on the projects without delays.

This comes at a time when most of the county projects have been advertised.

The Chief Officer for Public Works, Cathra Deymaan Abdi has highly praised her senior management team for working round the clock to have all the designs and BQs complete in time.

She equally said, that her technical team is ready for site handover, to fast-track the project’s take-off without delays, once the contractors of various projects have been identified.

She added since her Department is the backbone and a facilitator of all the county development projects, the team in Public Works has no luxury of time during the festive season, and is on call for duty at all times.

The Public Works Chief emphasized teamwork in the Department, noting that without it, the projects that are supposed to start and be completed within the agreed period would be delayed, thence denying Turkana residents of the benefits that come along with the operationalization of those projects.

Moving forward, the CCO assured the SMT of her support to deliver on the Governor’s Nine-Point Agenda saying, that without the support of the Department, they would done no favor to the leadership and the residents of Turkana.

She pledged to work very closely with the County’s Contract Implementation Team and all the Departments to hand over all the completed projects to user departments for operationalization.

The project managers who have been the site engineers for most of the projects, were happy with the progress the Public Works has so far made.

Engineer Ignatius Kopeto, who is the Director for Public Works said, that since the beginning of the FY’2023/2023, all the designs and BQs for various projects were available.

However, he said, were forced to redo the BQs and designs as a result of changes in the supplementary budget.

Kopeto said, is happy as most of the projects he oversaw are complete and will soon be handed over to the Departments. He significantly pointed out to the Kanamkemer fresh produce market, as one among the many such projects that will be launched and operationalized in January 2024.

His colleague, Engineer Dennis Machoka reiterated the dedication of the Department’s leadership in facilitating continuous monitoring of projects right from the initial to implementation stages, to ensure strict compliance with the standards required.

Eng. Machoka did not hide his excitement for the resolve to have a project management database, which is a bold step to store files and BQs in the system. He said, it is a big relief to the current days, where files of projects are physically handled and stored.

Present during the retreat included; Dr Joshhua Napoco (Director, Administration), James Ewar (Deputy Director, Public Works), all the engineers, procurement officers, accountants, and volunteers.