Lusaka City Council last year awarded a tender worth K4.7 billion for the construction of Kulima Tower bus station to the younger brother of immediate past Lusaka Mayor Robert Chikwelete.
Mr Chikwelete is a councilor for John Howard ward 2 in Lusaka’s Chawama constituency and when he was the mayor, Chimwenda investments limited, which is owned by his younger brother Charles Chikwelete, was awarded a tender after the company apparently lost to its competitor, China Jiangsu International.
China Jiangsu bid for K4,792,070,200 and Chimwenda lost because of the high bid of K5,177,493,029 but was later awarded the tender and is almost finishing the construction of the bus station.
This is according to the comprehensive set of minutes containing the whole bidding process dated September 16, 2010. The minutes have further revealed that Chimwenda investment also lost at the engineers’ estimate stage when it scored 10 percentage deviation from the set standards while China Jiangsu International only scored 2 per cent.
The lower figure represents the company closeness from winning the tender because it shows that the firm had less deviations from the engineers parameters.
The Lusaka City Council last year invited sealed bids for the construction of the Kulima Tower Bus station following concerns that the place was too open and subjected commuters to heat, rains and the cold depending on the weather.
The bids were advertised in the Times of Zambia and the Post Newspaper and 15 firms responded but 13 were short-listed.
After the opening of the tender box, the acting town clerk established a seven-man tender committee and started sittings on June 4, 2010. The committee adopted a three-phased evaluation process which included preliminary evaluation where bids that were close to qualifying were carried forward and the rest dropped.
The other stages were the technical evaluation which involved issues related to engineering capacity and finally, the financial stage where firms that asked for lower but reasonable figures were considered.
In all the three stages, China Jiangsu International, which is currently constructing the new Lusaka General Hospital in Chainama, scored the highest.
The documents also state that at the evaluation stage, the committee recommended that the contract should be awarded to China Jiangsu International and the report was submitted to the Head of Procurement who was also a member of the committee.
However, in an interview from Kitwe where Chimwenda Investments Limited is based, Mr Chikwelete (Charles) said the firm was big and was awarded the tender because it won the bid on technical reasons.
Mr Chikwelete said his firm was big and had done works with big mining firms in the country and that all the firms that competed for the Kulima Tower works lost.
He explained that the term Chimwenda is formed from the first three letters of his second name, Chikwelete while Mwenda is the second name for his wife.
Mr Chikwelete confirmed that the immediate past mayor of Lusaka was his elder brother but that he never influenced the tender process.
However, the former mayor’s mobile number went un-answered from Saturday afternoon.
Lusaka City Council has been serving a 90-day suspension following massive land scandals that included the distribution and sharing of 102 plots at Lusaka’s Lilayi Housing project without advertising to members of the public in line with the law.
The council does not have jurisdiction over state land, according to the Land Act. The country’s biggest council is now being run by Copperbelt provincial administrator Solomon Sakala who has also occupied the Mayor’s office.
Recently, the Times exposed another scandal in which the current mayor Daniel Chisenga has sold one of the 10 Lilayi plots allocated to him at a cost of K30 million.
The Mayor has allegedly sold stand number 38, to a Lusaka resident Ernest Mutale who holds National Registration Card (NRC) number 240305/43/1 of Chitanda road in Chunga township and box number 30252.
[Times of Zambia]
Ka step ba former mayor hmm
Its OK as long as it didn’t go to those bloody Chinese!!! Remember these muh furs have the habit of shooting our people….
Ba Times what about the 7.5billion purchase of land ba NAPSA. Yes it is wrong to single source, but everybody is doing it in ZAMBIA
Well why give the tender to foreigners when there are Zambian companies who can manage to do the same work? Give priority to the Zambian companies because they will keep the money and reinvest it within the country unlike the Chinese who will get it out and maybe not even employ many Zambians as they have a tendency of bringing their own people to work. Only if the Zambian companies do not meet the set requirement should foreign companies be considered. So if the favoured company is doing well and has the capacity to do the job, it should given the deal.
Good job Mr Chikwelete, at least the money will get to be reinvested within the country. Anything against the Chinese is welcome, thats the way to go PF. VIVA Zambian companies, VIVA PF
the place looks very good , its about time the open it. its ok thats how it is in zambia. WW ; wako ni wako…
There is nothing wrong at this stage coz more than 50% of works have been done. Why was this information not brought to light before commencement of works. This mentality of PHD should come to an end. The Chinese have to many projects around Zambia. Well others may smell a rat. But there is need to build local capacity among are engineering firms which are showing seriouness. Well his brother may have influenced awarding of the contract but has the company not delivered. Well done Chimwenda Investments Ltd.
Vote UPND. They are scandaless. PF has started ni chekele ko even before they form government. This is just a tip of the iceberg. Once they are in power, Sata will bring out his shamboko!
at least it didn’t go to the chinese but shouldn’t this have come to light before the works were 50% done?
The Jackal, one big reason why foreign firms are bringing in their own people to do simple tasks, and thriving, is because they place a huge amount of emphasis on work ethic, professionalism and quality of work. If this Zambian company does the job well at an acceptable cost, then good for everyone.
But being on the ground, I can tell you one thing, our labourers and foremen and others lack all that I’ve mentioned. For f***’s sake, they built my wall at an angle, it is bent. I for one will contract either a Chinese or Lebanese firm to build my projects. There are a few in particular who are building their reputation, and guess what, it’s fellow Zambians who are recommending them.
And yes, they have brought in small batches of tilers, plumbers, brick layers, foremen, etc from their own country. But I don’t f****g care. You should seem them work. With pride, efficiency, effectiveness and purpose. It’s my money, and I get a good piece of work at an acceptable price finished off SIX months earlier than an exact project given to a Zambian company. Because this Zambian will try to rip me off, he won’t put attention to detail, and in the end it will be one shoddy job. I’ve learnt my lesson.
So you wonder why China Jianxsu weren’t given the project? Simple. Corruption.
FOR SURE,,BE VERY ANALYTICAL ,,,WE HAVE TO CHANGE FOR BETTER ,,PLS BA ZAMBIA,,MAY WE PROTECT OUR RESOURCES,,,,WE NEED TO CHANGE FORM THE OLD RETIRED POLITICIANS TO NEW AND CARING LEADERS,,VIVA HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,,2011,,STATE HOUSE
Perfect, RB wants Zambians first. Good show Lusaka City Council keep it up. Empower Zambians Viva RB and HH.
They did well to give it to a zambian why should millions of dollars be going to china intead of to zambians?Look at whats happening to our copper its being taken away without any benefits to zambians so why even care who the contract is given to the fact is that we zambian are sick and tired of makin foreigners rich while our own wallow in poverty..Go to other countries and find out how many contracts are given to foreigners. here we treat foreigners as first class while people of the land are treated like second class which is very puzzling….
chatu 101, what is so puzzling about giving contracts to foreigners who actually perform x 10 better (and considerably cheaper) than giving the same contracts to Zambians who will inflate the costs, and do shoddy jobs? What is so puzzling? Want the contracts? Pull up some socks ok?
Flouting tender procedures is a criminal offense. The chaps could land in jail if they are not careful.
Donot worry about who gets the job. Worry about the quality of the job. Nothing disqualifys Charles form bidding for jobs at the Council. After all it is not the mayor who gives , it is the whole committee
I think that it is wrong to attribute this to the Mayor. The Chief Executive Officer of the City council is the Town Clerk. It is the Town Clerk who should be queried about this. Mayors are titular officers and should have nothing to do with administration. They preside over policy as chairpersons for the sitting councils.
Better than to give money to the chinese who will just build in shangai
thats the best the council could do why give chines when zambia are there to do the job. how i wish other councils follow the same suit
jelous ba Zambia. amarubbish. Did he do the Job? If he did, wats the problems. next time refine the tender procedures
These chinese chaps have too many contracts. There materials come in on investment licences so they don’t pay duty. What more do they want. Let us Zam ians be proud and be given some works. Sable was awarded a contract to do the Chipata – Lundazi but Rubex was a better. so is works and supply PF controlled. Well no wander ab use of office close ni scrapped. . .
Yes the council did well to give the contract to the Zambian firm,besides is it the mayor who single sourced or the whole bunch of tender committee members? after all these Chinese chaps are under quoting everything and hence pay poorly the Zambian laborer to cater for the lost monies.The coucil was very right to have given the tender to the zambian company it doesnt matter ka fikalala as long as its a zambian contractor.The chinese are winning all tenders why?????? ala!
this is good ..its a Zambian company and needs to be empowered..viva Zambianisation..
Thats a very misleading headline,why say the former mayor awarded the contract to his young brother and yet in your story it says something else? bu puba ubu ba shetani