The Minister of Health, Dr Robert Kargougou, was on the construction site of the radiotherapy center at the CMA in Dafra, on Saturday August 19, 2023. The least that can be said is that the Minister is not at all happy with the progress of the construction site.
Indeed, during this site visit by Minister Robert Kargougou, on August 19, the rate of execution of the work was 30%. “The last time, when we came for the follow-up visit last April, the site was at an execution rate of 25%. A few months later, the execution rate is 30%,” he laments. That is 34 months after the laying of the first stone in October 2020, while the execution time was 18 months.
This means that this project has lasted only too long, to the chagrin of the populations of the great West of the country (regions of the Hauts-Bassins, the Boucle du Mouhoun, the Cascades, the South-West) who are waiting for this infrastructure impatiently.
Well before these last two visits, Minister Kargougou was on the same site, Monday, November 21, 2022. On this occasion he already noted the bitter observation. “It’s a construction site who is late. We are at a physical execution rate of 21%, but we have good hope that with this visit from construction site, work will accelerate so that during the year 2023, Bobo-Dioulasso and the greater western region can also benefit from a radiotherapy center», he wanted to believe, however. The least we can say is that construction work on the Bobo-Dioulasso radiotherapy center is progressing at a snail’s pace. What happened to go from an execution rate of 21% in November 2022 to only 30% in August 2023? That is an increase of 9% in 9 months.
This construction site «should have been delivered since last year (2022: editor’s note). You will agree with me that things are not going as we wish. If we do not once again strengthen our monitoring mechanism, if we do not take the right decisions, if each party does not draw conclusions from its shortcomings and weaknesses, we would not be surprised if in June 2024 this project is not delivered”, laments the Minister of Health, Dr Kargougou.
«Since his last visit in April to today, there has been some progress, but that is not what we expected. Because there is a certain difficulty of coordination, of internal management which is linked to the Austrian partner and its local partner in charge of the construction of the works. Otherwise the government has honored its commitments. explains Dr Constantin Sanon, the project coordinator. But he has faith that with “the arrival of the partner in September, we hope that the work will progress”, The Bobo-Dioulasso radiotherapy center has an overall cost estimated at 11.09 billion CFA francs. It will make it possible to carry out screening and complete care of cancer cases on site in Bobo-Dioulasso.
Aly Konate
