Maravi

I won't tolerate officials overwhelming contractors with work, warns

I won't tolerate officials overwhelming contractors with work, warns
By Mwala Kalaluka
Friday February 22, 2008 [03:00]

WORKS and supply minister Kapembwa Simbao has said he will this year not tolerate officials that continue to overwhelm contractors with works they have no capacity to handle. And the Road Development Agency (RDA) has indicated that out of the K462.7 billion donor funds budgeted for in the 2007 Annual Work Plan (AWP) only K157.92 billion was utilised.

Simbao yesterday said it was amazing how certain local contractors were able get a bulk of the road contracts even when they were incapacitated in the implementation of the works.

Explaining some of the achievements and challenges in his ministry to instill sanity in the construction sector this year, Simbao said contractors who still feel they can use their connections or money to receive favourable treatment should think twice.

“Things have started as you have seen we have done a lot of terminations, where we have found it necessary,” he said. “There are contractors with a lot of contracts and because of this they are not able to coordinate these works properly. We want to look into this issue.”

Simbao said this strategy would help avert a situation where government officials had to continuously quarrel with contractors over the poor implementation of projects.

“It is also amazing to me that a road contractor can end up having an excess of 10 contracts; how they get them I do not know,” Simbao said. “In this particular case, we just keep on giving even when there are complaints, not just from me but Zambia in general. How? That is what we want to look at, this must stop. Somewhere there is a problem.”

He observed that the idea of awarding contracts to the lowest bidder had somehow given rise to this trend of contractors being inundated with works beyond their capabilities.

Simbao also revealed that RDA officials would be specifically attached to road projects so that they could effectively play a supervisory role.

“We want to ensure that we attach an official to these projects, so that these contracts can be checked day and night,” he explained. “We know that they are not doing the job properly and they are not able to do the work properly because they are able to fool the eye.”

And the RDA stated that delayed and lengthy procurement processes had caused the low utilisation of funds.

Labels: CONTRACTORS

posted by MrK @ 9:23 AM