EIZ urges transparency in energy sector
By Fridah Zinyama
Tue 10 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT
THE Engineering Institute of Zambia (EIZ) has called for transparency in the management of the energy sector.
In an interview, EIZ president Henry Musonda said the government must clean up the energy sector as it was important for the country's continued economic growth.
“The way forward in managing the energy sector is to be more transparent and reduce on the involvement of politicians in this sector,” he said.
Musonda said there was also need to put in place a communication system that would allow the public to correct information on what was happening in the sector, instead of having anybody issuing statements about the fuel crisis in the country.
“We cannot have such a vital sector (energy) run in the manner in which we experienced over the past one month,” he said.
Energy minister Kenneth Konga earlier said Indeni Oil Refinery, the country's sole oil refiner, would continue to limp until government made a decision to find an equity partner.
Konga also called on stakeholders interested in setting up a second refinery to do so since the government had liberalised the economy to allow for participation from the private sector.
And Musonda said those given the responsibility of managing the energy sector should take full responsibility of what had happened and resign.
But Konga last week vowed not to resign owing to the fuel crisis that has hit the country, saying he had managed to contain the fuel shortages.
Labels: EIZ, HENRY MUSONDA
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Poor procurement systems worry ACEZ
By Maluba Jere and Mwala Kalaluka
Thursday August 21, 2008 [04:00]
ASSOCIATION of Consulting Engineers in Zambia (ACEZ) chairman Henry Musonda has said the absence of an efficient and effective procurement system has serious negative effects on good governance.
Submitting to the Parliamentary Committee on Public Accounts on the proposed Public Procurement Bill No 12 of 2008, Musonda said
the current system failed to generate desired results to ensure value for money for public contracts and transparency and accountability if offering and selecting public tenders.
Musonda said the efficiency of the procurement system was an important determinant, which affected the country’s economic growth.
He observed that in Zambia, the annual public investment run into trillions of kwacha and that this placed a huge volume of procurement activities on the public sector.
“Hence establishing an efficient and effective procurement system is central to achieve good governance of the country and is an integral component of public reforms,” he said.
Musonda explained that the prime objective of the procurement system was to facilitate economic development activities in the country and that the challenge was how to financially obtain the most advantageous and qualitatively the best services and supplies through an expeditious process without sacrificing the quality, integrity and transparency.
He cited extensive delays in the awarding of contracts as the major weakness in the procurement system in Zambia.
“This has been exacerbated by poor monitoring, non availability of standard contract documents and specifications, weak administration resulting in huge cost and time over-run in many development projects,” Musonda said.
“Procurements related problems have caused long implementation delays in critical economic development projects of the country and thereby obstructing the desired economic benefits to the people of Zambia.”
He also said the proposed bill would ensure the government procurement system was made more efficient and simplified in order to promote development needs of the country.
Musonda said currently, public sector officers, contractors and suppliers faced difficulties with tender procedures as they had to comply with different rules and procedures adding that the proposed bill should revise the current guidelines, harmonising it with the requirements of the international funding agencies.
Musonda added that there was need to defer the bill for a while because it needed to be reviewed so that additions and corrections could be made to it.
Labels: ACEZ, HENRY MUSONDA, PAC, PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS
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Controlling officers delay projects, says ZNTB director
By Fridah Zinyama
Thursday April 10, 2008 [04:00]
THE Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply on Tuesday heard that controlling officers were to blame for the delay in projects implementation because they prepare procurement plans late. Last year, K9 billion was not utilised and was returned to the treasury.
Zambia National Tender Board (ZNTB) director general, David Kapitolo told the committee chaired by UPND Siavonga member of parliament Douglas Siakalima that the funds were returned to the treasury not due to problems in tender processes but because controlling officers always prepared their procurement plans late.
Kapitolo said he had written to all controlling officers to prepare their procuring plans on time but “this never happens”.
“They know how much time the procedure takes but they wait until October when the tendering process has already begun. In October, we are normally overwhelmed with applications from controlling officers for projects, but it is already too late as we are drawing to the close of the year,” he explained.
And Kapitolo said if the budget was approved before the end of the year and everything was ready by January, it would give the tender board enough time to do most of the projects.
And Engineering Institute of Zambia vice-president Henry Musonda attributed the shoddy work on most of the roads to the awarding of contracts to the lowest bidders.
“The engineering profession is coming under attack for doing shoddy work when the blame could be attributed to the tendering process,” he said.
Musonda said the awarding of contracts was not been done in a proper manner.
“Somewhere things are not going well. contracts are being awarded to people who do shoddy works,” he said. “Very few roads come out good due to contracts being awarded to poor contractors.”
Labels: DAVID KAPITOLA, HENRY MUSONDA, PCCTWS, PROJECT MANAGEMENT, ZNTB
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