Algeria to allocate additional $1.9 billion to complete East-West Motorway

A total of $1.9 billion (150 billion DZ) was allocated to additional East-West Motorway works following a project evaluation, said General Director of the National Fund of Equipment for Development (CNED) Farouk Chiali.

“The re-evaluation of Algeria’s public large projects reached serious levels which exceeded world applicable rates. The re-evaluation level of public works went beyond 39 and 27 percent in transport sector, 18 percent in water projects and 16 percent in land settlement,” Chiali told a news conference at the Ministry of Finance’s headquarters in Algiers.

“Economic and social big facility projects value is estimated at $81 billion. Of them, 59 projects are followed up by the Fund worth $56 billion or 69 percent of national large projects as part of Algeria’s five-year-plan,” he added.

The initial allocated money to the East-West Motorway project was estimated at $11.2 billion.

The main reason behind the re-evaluation is the execution of programs before their maturation. “The law stipulates that all project owners must get the cabinet’s approval when the re-evaluation exceeds 15 percent-level.”

CNED’s General Director said the fund was created in 2004 to maximize public expenses, improve their efficiency and large projects evaluation, diversify funding sources and improve project funding costs which are more than 20 billion DZ.

The five-year-plan 2005-2009’s projects in public works sector did not exceed 71 percent only after four years. The implementation of the 2010-2014 plan was estimated at 26 percent only. In transport sector, the implementation reached 5.36 percent compared to 50 percent in environment and land settlement sector and 75 percent in water resources sector.