The Road Development Agency(RDA) has appealed to local authorities on the Copperbelt to start preparing tender documents for the K5 Billion that has been set aside by the Government to rehabilitate priority roads covering the 72 District in the country.
And Copperbelt Minister Mwansa Mbulakulima has directed Town Clerks and District
Commissioners on the Copperbelt to monitor various contractors engaged by the RDA to
rehabilitate Roads in their localities.
RDA Head Engineer for Designing, Elias Mwape, said Government has set aside K5
billion that would be distributed among the 72 districts in the country to rehabilitate roads that were in a deplorable state and needed immediate attention.
Mr. Mwape said this in Kitwe yesterday when he addressed members of the Provincial
Development Coordinating Committee(PDCC) at Edinburgh hotel.
He said the local authorities had submitted a list of roads they wanted to be worked on urgently and that funds were now ready for the works to begin.
He said the money must be accessed and used by the local authorities within this year.
He said the local authorities will not handle any funds as the monies would be released directly to the contractors that would be engaged.
And Mr. Mbulakulima has challenged Town Clerks and District Commissioners to monitor
rehabilitation works being carried out by most Contractors on the Copperbelt.
Mr. Mbulakulima said there were a number of contractors that have been engaged to work on the roads but the quality of works being done was poor.
He said it was the responsibility of Government Chief Officers to monitor these works to ensure that public and Donor Funds were being used for the intended purpose.
The Minister noted that it was not in order to wait for RDA to take action on erring contractors when the system was in place at local level.
ZANIS
GENTLEMEN WE ARE TIRED OF CRITICISING YOU!
It really baffles me to see how we run this country kwati chitele chankoko. Do we really have educated men in Zambia? I think with the way things are running now no one is brilliant in this country. How on earth can a thinking goverment release a mere K5b for for 72 districts and expect some quality work to be done.
OK lets do some arithemetic here, 5000,000,000/72 = K69,444,444.44.Each district will get K69m for road rehabilitation and upgrading. which genuine contractor can agree to sign a K69m contract for this particular job. I believe its only that bush contractor with only picks shovels and wheel borrows who can willingly sign such a contractor. This,therefore, explains why we have never had a quality job on road maintanance. What criteria was used to come up with this amount for the entire country? With these mean political leaders in place Zambia will not see any meaningful development. I dont understand this kind of planing.
K5B for Roads, K4B for State House, K3B for President’s Family,K6B for MMD campaign’s to stay in power. In short, misplaced priorities.
Do planners carryout feasibility studies?Do we have Town planners in our country? It doesnot make sense at all to use K5bn for raod construction on the copperbelt alone because some roads are just a skeleton of what used to be roads.Chililabombwe/Luanshya alone can wipe out this figure to just put roads back in shape.Let some of these investors plough back their profits into infra structure reconstruction despite paying charges to the local authourity