As a follow up to 14th February, 2022 meeting with contractors on progress of work on the rehabilitation work on the National Civil Registration Authority’s (NCRA) Headquarter in Brookfields Freetown, the National Authorising Office (NAO) and the European Union (EU) have held another meeting yesterday, 16th March with contractors to discuss progress, challenges and next steps on the ongoing rehabilitation work.
Making his opening remarks Director General NCRA Mohamed M. Massaquoi said there has been considerable amount of progress on the rehabilitation works on site.
One of the two contractors on the rehabilitation work, Sam-Toko Macarthy gave a comprehensive report on work done so far on their side of the contract which has to do with electrification, plumbing, fixing of doors and windows and ensuring that provisions are made for physically challenge persons that may want to access the building.
In her presentation on behalf of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) who are also part of the rehabilitation work, Project Manager Engineer Trudy Morgan outlined the progress of work that has to do with networking and cabling of the building, Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) software and Primary Data Centre (PDC) procurements and review of proposed scope.
Trudy Morgan further spoke on UNOPS next steps which includes completion of the Headquarter building, approval for the award of the CRVS software, relaunch of the PDC tender, confirmation of the appointment of a Technical Advisor and confirmation of the works to be undertaken at chiefdom level.
Responding to the challenges highlighted by Trudy Morgan in her presentation, both the NAO Director, Ambrose James and EU Head of Cooperation, Gerald Hetler advised the two contractors to have frequent site meetings in order to address those challenges to be able to meet with the completion date deadline.
Gerald Hetler however, encourage NCRA to work within the project financing agreement and pay keen attention to the project stipulated amount so they will be able to prioritise the remaining activities that are to be undertaken.
The proposed NCRA Headquarters construction works include the rehabilitation of the ground, first, second and third floors of the main building and rehabilitation of the canteen building.
The rehabilitation work is being funded jointly by the European Union and the Government of Sierra Leone with the EU contributing Le 2,065,005,000.
The European Union and Government of Sierra Leone are supporting the rehabilitation of the NCRA Headquarters to create an enabling work environment for them to deliver on their mandate.
NCRA Director General Mohamed Massaquoi also gave brief update on activities so far carried out by NCRA including the just concluded nationwide civil registration exercise.
Also present at the meeting are the EU Team Leader, Governance and Civil Society Serena Bertaina, Director External Relations Affairs NCRA Grace Harman, representative from the Ministry of Works and Public Assets and other senior officers from NCRA and NAO
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