The World Bank funded Rapid Employment Project (REP) Scheme that was implemented by Honiara City Council (HCC) and Ministry of Infrastructure Development has released interesting statistics regarding the project’s progress.
According to a statistical progress of the project presented last week, Component 1.a of the project which covers the road repairs and maintenance had created a total of 93,515 person days of work.
Out of which 21 contracts were completed with a cost of $11.9 million covering a total of 86.3 kilometres of road work covered.
Three contracts are reported to have been on-going that costs $2.07 million and is expected to cover another 11.62 kilometres of road.
This accounts for 31.5 percent of average labour input of completed works including 137 contractor representatives trained covering 364 hours of training.
With Component 1.b which is the RES Urban Works and Services (HCC), 454,588 person-days of work were created.
An estimated 9,110 people have been employed for an average 50 days each undergoing street cleaning and roadside brush cutting.
For this component 20 access subprojects have been completed whilst 8 are on-going.
The work done on component 1.b has cost SBD$ 14 million (US$1.8 m) in wages transferred.
About 59 percent of the participants in this component are women and 53 percent are youths (ages 16-29)
Meanwhile a total of 10,700 people were trained under Component 2 Pre-Employment Training (REP-HCC)of the RES.
Out of which 10,680 people have graduated with a certificate by the end of January 2015.
By DANIEL NAMOSUAIA