WILLEMSTAD - The management and maintenance of the public road network in Curaçao are characterized by significant shortcomings, particularly due to the lack of thorough reporting and quality control by the government. This is the conclusion drawn by the General Court of Audit in a report titled 'Effectiveness of management and maintenance of the public road network', published yesterday.
The maintenance status of the main roads varies, with some sections in good condition and others clearly in decline. However, the situation is even worse for neighborhood streets, where the quality is predominantly poor to mediocre. The island has 306 neighborhoods and a total of 900 kilometers of neighborhood streets and over 250 kilometers of main roads.
Verifiability
According to the Court of Audit, the core of the problem lies in the lack of transparency and verifiability in maintenance activities, which prevents the quality of the road network from being ensured. This issue particularly affects neighborhood streets, which are mostly in poor to mediocre condition.
Therefore, it is difficult to ascertain whether the executed works meet the necessary quality standards, which have also not been defined by the ministry.
Resources
Furthermore, it appears that the budgets allocated for maintenance are not fully utilized, raising questions about the management of public resources. Nevertheless, it is stated that there is a chronic lack of adequate resources.
The implementing organization of the Ministry of VVRP identifies three causes for these shortcomings. Firstly, there is a structural underestimation of the required financial resources, leading the ministry to regularly adjust the budget and postpone projects.
Secondly, unforeseen circumstances and overdue payments hinder the full utilization of the budget, resulting in fewer projects being executed annually than planned.
Thirdly, a lack of liquid resources means that ongoing projects and overdue payments heavily impact the financial capacity.
As a solution to the liquidity problems, the minister is considering taking out a loan of NAf. 310 million, intended to catch up on overdue maintenance and finance it through revenues from motor vehicle tax (MRB).
In addition to financial constraints, the implementing organization also faces shortages of personnel and materials, with no adequate capacity planning having been developed to address and tackle these shortages to date.
Planned
Due to the absence of policy and the underutilization of allocated resources in the period 2017-2021, the systematic maintenance and management of the road network have not been sufficiently realized by the governments in recent years.
As a result, various roads are not in a good state of maintenance. The quality of the roads has not been inspected in recent years. The last survey to determine the maintenance condition of the roads and the priority for their maintenance dates back to 2016, with some inspections in 2019.
Additionally, the selection of roads currently undergoing maintenance is not based on current information and priority. The ministry cannot indicate how long the lifespan of the roads will be extended through the so-called 'life extension'.
As a result, no guarantee can be given to citizens that the quality of all roads is maintained in the correct order and sustainably.
Multi-Year Plan
For the period 2023-2029, Minister Charles Cooper has developed a multi-year plan to catch up on the backlog, achieve circularity in maintenance, and increase the sustainability of the roads.
The minister has also indicated that infrastructure is an important focus in his policy. This is a positive sign, but care must be taken to ensure that roads are addressed in order of urgency and that there are sufficient financial resources, manpower, and materials available.