THE National Council for Construction (NCC) has fined Dangote Industries Zambia Limited and three companies contracted by the company K18,000 each, for flouting construction regulations.
This was after NCC suspended the operations of the three contractors on Friday for failing to register with the council before starting operations and also failing to pay penalty fees for not complying with council regulations.
The ban was lifted on Saturday after an emergency meeting.
The three contractors have been contracted by Dangote Industries to construct the cement plant in Masaiti scheduled for opening in about four months time.
Dangote Industries Zambia Limited is a US$450 million cement manufacturing plant under construction with production capacity of 1.5 million tonnes of cement annually once production starts.
Dangote Group, the mother company based in Nigeria, broke ground for the Zambian plant in 2011 and the construction of the plant started in 2012.
NCC Executive Director Charles Mushota said in an interview yesterday that the three contractors, Sinoma Engineering, and two others he could not name by Press time, were carrying out construction works without registering with the NCC and also refused to pay the penalty fees.
“We had earlier approached them to register with the NCC because that is the law. We also told them to pay 100,000 penalty units for starting works before registering,” he said.
The three firms however, Mr Mushota said, refused to pay the penalty fee and consequently could not be registered.
This prompted the NCC on Friday, June 6, this year to halt operations indefinitely.
Dangote and the three contractors then appealed to the Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge and an emergency meeting was held on Saturday.
Mr Musenge said in an interview that it was unfortunate that four months towards the opening of the cement plant, the contractors should have their operations suspended.
He said it was not in anyone’s best interest to suspend operations at the current stage.
Mr Musenge said after discussing with Dangote, the three contractors and the NCC, it was concluded that the suspension be lifted to allow works to continue.
He said the erring parties were instructed to pay the penalty fee immediately and register their companies.
“It would be very unfortunate at this stage to suspend the construction works because that will derail the whole project,” Mr Musenge said.
Mr Mushota said after the meeting, it was agreed that the three contractors pay K18,000 each and they also started the registration process.
He said Dangote also paid K18,000 for contracting companies that were not registered with the NCC.
K18,000 only? We need to revise these punitive fines.
It is a very sad state of affairs what is happening at Dangote Industries Zambia Limited. I am happy that NCC has woken up finally. Let EIZ, ZICA and all the other related bodies wake up as well and come in to correct all the problems. I know of people who are practicing Engineering, Human Resources, Accounts and yet are not registered and allowed to practice in Zambia.
That’s the way to go Mr Mushota , before they assume that there is free money making ventures in zambia make them understand what’s required of them. No back door negotiations, no short cuts , no tokens of appreciation , no emotions, no opinions, everything by law. we need to change perceptions and improve the way do business in Zambia.
As usual the minister intervened after a ka bribe. where is the missing link?
if that structure collapses for some reason at some time will the minister defend his action ? R they using qualified engineers or bush engineers ? thats the whole purpose of registering qualified companies for assurance of quality works been done . Minister u’ve got it wrong apa. NCC thoroughly inspect the works that these guys have done and where were you all along kanshi ? or were you just waiting to fine them from your office? You NCC are the chaps tarnishing the image of the hard working engineers , lazy chaps i must add !
Magroova – I don’t understand when you say NCC are the tarnishing the image of hard working engineers..how? I though the opposite was right as it was the engineers employed by Dangote who knew the law regarding comtractor registration and yet sat of their backside?
I think its the responsibility of every professional in this industry to sound the bells whenever an illegality is happening, be it any bad working practices e.g. worker not wearing PPE on site or, corruption etc. NCC can not police the entire country. Just use your camera phone and take videos,photographs of workers wearing pata-pata on site, bamboo scaffolding etc and send them to NCC for further action. Contractors get paid for PPE and there should be no excuse for having non on site.
Bravo Mr Mushota, that’s the way to go!! Though this should have been nipped in the bud, its never too late to correct the wrong. Just be proactive next time so that illegal contractors are punished severely even rendering them bankrupt. Imagine if an accident was to happen on this site, who would be blamed, Dangote or NCC? Mr Mushota and team, you are doing a great job at that institution, please sanitise this industry and don’t spare anyone. It’s time to crack the whip!!!! PF cadres should keep their backside out of this. Why intervene? This is how corrupt you mother chakuti-chakuti are…. excuse my accent.
Nigerian company – what do you expect?! Most Nigerian companies operate like that, cutting corners all the time.
Unfortunately they are in Zambia big time:-(
Dangote uses ill qualified indian engineers who do not know the laws is this country and who are not even registered with EIZ to proctice in Zambia. We are stillcracking the wip in them. Zambia has alot of money lying around with this investor
Well well well…….what about the labour issue,how has it gone? Have those issues been looked into? Minister of labour gave them two weeks,has anyone foolwed that issue? Minister of labour please respond.
This NCC is joke…no wonder regulations are ignored.
NCC is a government body whose prudent actions should be supported by the minister rather than challenged. Honestly, should we let people flout the laws of the land just for political expediency? The same thing happened when RB flagged off the project before the EIA was done and approved by the ZEMA. Remember our brothers and sisters, who perished at Bigrimm and Mwanawasa decided to shield the Chinese instead of letting them face criminal justice.
Why do the relevant authorities wait until people build and then they move in with fines or demolitions. Lets learn to be proactive instead of spending resources demolishing structures which have been illegally built, be it markets, houses or in this case industrial structures.
ONLY? AND WHAT ABOUT KCM?