Although all district assemblies in the Upper West Region are supposed to hand over their European Union (EU) micro-projects by mid May this year, most of the projects are still at the foundation levels.

This is because some of the district assemblies did not employ artisans and other workers through the district implementation committees as stipulated by EU rules and regulations.

Dr Kwaku Osafo, Project Manager of EU micro-projects was giving an overview of EU projects during a three-day tour of the region to find out the extent of work at the various districts.

He said while Lawra and Sissala districts had almost completed their projects, almost all the 12 micro-projects at the Jirapa/Lambussie District were yet to have a complete take off and wondered if they could meet the deadline in May this year.

Dr Osafo attributed most of the delays to bureaucracy, political interference and the recruitment of wrong artisans for the jobs.

The project manager said EU would penalise all defaulting districts by reducing the number of projects and subsequently scrapping them out of the list of beneficiaries if they failed to execute the projects on time.

He said Lawra District had done very well in the execution of their projects followed by Sissala, Nadowli, Wa and Jirapa/Lambussie.

Dr Osafo said while some of the districts were not paying allowances of artisans thereby delaying the work, other districts engaged the services of friends and relatives who were not good enough thereby resulting in poor quality of work.

He called on the district assemblies to move away from constructing more schools to the provision of potable water, good roads, culverts, teachers and nurses' quarters to encourage such professionals to work in the rural areas.