Maravi

Govt terminates Sable, Basil Reeds contracts

Govt terminates Sable, Basil Reeds contracts
By Mwala Kalaluka
Thursday January 10, 2008 [03:00]

THE government has terminated Sable Contractors and Basil Reeds’ contracts on the controversial Kasama-Luwingu and Choma - Chitongo roads respectively. RDA acting chief executive officer Erasmus Chilundika said in an interview yesterday that the decision to terminate the contracts on the two long-standing road projects was necessitated by the need for cost saving measures in the implementation.

He said the cost for the two projects that were commenced in 2001 and 1998 respectively, were US dollar denominated and as such the terms were not amenable to the prevailing economic situation in the country.

“On the Choma-Chitongo, the contract was signed in about 1998 it’s an old contract and a lot of things have happened, which necessitated the review of that contract,” he said.

“We had a discussion with the (South African) contractor and he was magnanimous enough to acknowledge the fact that the conditions of contract now are not suitable for the implementation of that project.”

He said another reason for the termination and review of the contract was that it had no provision for payment of simple interest in case of delayed payments to the contractor.

“We had to pay compounded interest and that is not very good because you have to pay a lot more money when you delay to pay,” Chilundika said.

“We also have to change the quantities; that is a gravel road, which now has become, probably an earth road.”

He said the RDA had commenced the process to work out a new bidding document for the Chitongo - Choma road.

“We are hoping that within this year, we shall have a contractor of the road,” Chilundika assured. “We were able to pay, out of the budget, about K4.5 billion that we owed the contractor on the previous contract and so we hope that we will be able to start the new works with the remaining balance.”

Choma-Chitongo road was allocated about K18 billion last year.

On the status of the Kasama - Luwingu road, Chilundika said the contract would now be exposed to a competitive bidding process, as demanded by tender procedures.

And the Road Development Agency (RDA) has identified about 11 dangerous spots on the Maamba - Batoka road that need to be worked on urgently before they are completely damaged by heavy rains.

RDA head of public relations Loyce Saili said the dangerous spots would be rehabilitated by Road Construction Company (RCC) with China Geo-Engineering Corporation (CGC).

Labels: CONTRACTORS, ROAD DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, ROADS

posted by MrK @ 4:53 PM