secretary Boniface Chibwali briefing special assistant to the
president on project implementation Luck Mulusa
Special Assistant to the President for Project Monitoring and Implementation Lucky Mulusa has proposed that a law be put in place that will compel all foreign firms to partner with local contractors when executing public works.
Mr Mulusa said compelling foreign contractors to work with local ones will empower local contractors and enable skills transfer.
He said enacting this law is necessary because the 20 percent threshold for awarding contracts to local companies has failed.
‘You see the 20 percent requirement that all contracts be awarded to local contractors is not been observed and as government, we are looking at pushing in a law that will compel all foreign firms to partner with our local contractors if they are to win contracts from government,’ Mr Mulusa.
Mr Mulusa also revealed that government will soon be holding an indaba with local contractors to find a way of assisting them with their growth.
‘The indaba, we are hoping will help us identify some sustainable solutions to the problems facing local contractors because we are pumping in a lot of money into infrastructure development and that money should be staying in this country,’ he said.
LOL. Sounds like forced marriages. Dependence syndrome reloaded.
The problem is not with the foreign contractors but with the local ones, who sale their 20% back to the foreign contractors at a discount. The proceeds are then used in a prodigal manner.
The thinking is flawed. Is that the way skills are transferred. No wonder why we have poor quality of roads and other projects. Look at the performance of Zambia railways, the loan which was obtained from Euro has not been used wisely to get Zambia railways on it’s feet so that there is no need to borrow. Zambia Railways has people with right skills, but it is Zambia Railways top management and it’s board that is not producing the desired results because of political cadres who hold high positions. Again Zambia Railways is looking to borrow for repairs and rehabilitation of ZR. That money could be used for reconstruction of Bengwela R line. Let just the Zambian companies complete with the foreign companies in order to change the behavior of Zambians to good culture of working.
Sorry, it cant work my friend. Zambian companies can not compete with foreign companies because foreigners bring in plant and spare parts duty free, whilst Zambians with local plant, not duty free will have higher tender prices because of the obvious ‘duty free’ which turns out to disadvantage the local companies. Partnering is okey and Mulusa is spot on. In RSA, a company can not get public jobs without the deliberate policy of empowering blacks. How can that not work in Zambia.
Ba #SEE, if prof Chirwa was not frustrated by the crooks around the self declared prof Antanga we would have had a better ZRL by now. Chirwa UK company would also had made good designs for ZRL. if pro Chirwa had a case to answer, why has it taken ages to convict him. Antanga should be replaced to some other ministry and let prof Chirwa take over. For the new law, let it apply to new contracts and not the old ones. We Zambians need whites in partnerships to succeed. We need to get rid of our pride enshrined in our national anthem because on our own we have failed and created Misisi, Kuku, Chibolya and Chawama copounds etc with no hope for the transformation of these compounds.
DON’T PROPOSE IN THE PRESS. ADVISE THE PRESIDENT , THAT IS YOUR DUTY.
Careful here, the locals culture of corruption and laziness will cost you.
These are supposed to be the brains in Lungu’s background team…he is there saying that they have lamentable failed to implement the partnering of foreign companies with local sub-contractor….surely how hard can this be you are the selfsame people awarding these contracts to foreign companies why then can you not put clauses in these selfsame contracts. Why is it that in other countries this is working flawlessly? Why should they always be issues in Zambia? Why?
By the way, the photo shows a woman with Mulusa, is it the lady called Boniface or what?
Lucky, its very simple in the first instance, but not as simple as we may speak about it, one, simply include a condition in the contract document. If two parties sign up to it, the courts have very little to say, unless its against the laws!!!!! which I do not see in this case.
Ba Mulusa ukufwaya ukumonekela! He is an empty tin wanting to be heard all the time.