Corruption has tarnished local contractors' image - Luhanga
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Sun 23 June 2013, 14:00 CAT

ACTING Eastern Province deputy permanent secretary Zachariah Luhanga says the image of the local construction industry has been tarnished by those who think they can get contracts through underhand methods.

And a representative of the Eastern Province based local contractors, Salatiel Tembo, says the local contractors are lacking in many areas.

Officiating at the closure of a one week Eastern Province contractors' capacity building training workshop at Luangwa House on Friday, Luhanga, who represented provincial permanent secretary Bert Mushala, said the government would ensure transparency in the awarding of contracts.
He said government would only award contracts on merit.
"You do not need to know the authorities for you to get contracts or to solicit for contracts. This government has a zero tolerance policy on corruption," Luhanga said.
He said in a quest to empower citizens, the government had put in place several legislation and policies like the 20 per cent sub-contracting policy that government was now fully implementing through Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC).
"The government is working tirelessly to empower the local contractors. All contracts/projects that are being advertised and awarded in the recent past and now have this clause enshrined and strictly adhered to in road, building or any other construction project in Zambia. We want you to benefit and eventually grow and graduate from being small and medium scale contractors to large scale contractors," Luhanga said.
And Tembo said the training had been enlightening because the local contractors were lacking in a number of areas going by the course content that they had gone through.
He hoped that after the training they would not be a serious disgrace.
He commended the National Council for Construction for enlightening local contractors.
Provincial buildings officer Marko Mtonga hoped the training would address previous problems where contracts were allegedly being awarded to the same contracts.
Mtonga urged the contractors to act like ambassadors by sharing what they had learnt with others.