PRESIDENT Edgar Lungu has observed that some contractors are bent on draining State coffers at the expense of them performing to expected standards.
President Lungu said he is tired of seeing contractors getting away with colossal sums of money, which did not equate to their input.
Mr Lungu said this when he addressed a meeting at Itezhi-Tezhi Boarding Secondary School, in Itezhi-Tezhi District yesterday and ordered area Member of Parliament Greyford Monde to approach the ministries of General Education and that of Works and Supply to ensure that works at the institution were completed within six months.
President Lungu said it did not make sense for the school to be incomplete for 10 years as works commenced in 2006.
President Lungu charged that he viewed delayed projects as products of corruption and thus warned that if reviewing the procurement process ended at blacklisting local contractors, he would do just that.
“I would like to challenge the contractor and the Ministry of Education to expedite the process, because I don’t see the reason why a project like this one can take 10 years, from 2006 to 2011 and now to 2016, one project, Itezhi-Tezhi Boarding School.
“This doesn’t make sense to me! Honourable Minister of Livestock and Fisheries (Mr Monde), please, when we get back to Lusaka, see the Minister of Education, see the people at Works and Supply to ensure that they finish this project in six months,” he said.
President Lungu said he wanted quality workmanship, quality and competent contractors to be awarded contracts and not those that did shoddy works.
He ordered Mr Monde, who was present, to remind him about the Itezhi-Tezhi School matter during today’s Cabinet meeting.
“We have to get to the root of this. Six months from here, this project should be handed over and all the contractors should vacate, that is an order that I am making now and going forward, I am saying useless Zambian contractors count yourselves out,” he said.
He said Government would not be awarding contracts to local contractors, just because they were Zambians.
The contract was initially awarded to a local contractor, Profund, in 2006 before it was given to the current Chinese firm.
Meanwhile, President Lungu said he wanted to see selfless civil servants as well as those who were loyal to the Government of the day.
He warned that the civil servants bent on frustrating the civil service work owing to their belief that there would be change of Government after the August 11, 2016 general elections would be in for a rude shock.
To the pupils, Mr Lungu urged them to take education seriously as it had far reaching benefits and to work towards their ambitions now.
He urged the female pupils to say no to early marriages as they should wait until they reached the right age and charged that some girls had dropped out of school because their parents “foolishly” lured them into early marriages on account that they were beautiful.
School head Benny Malingapasi said the institution was opened on January 14, 2013 and currently has 439 pupils.
Mr Malingapasi said the school had, among other things, cut down on the distance the pupils covered to access education as well as prevented female pupils from renting houses which resulted in some falling prey to early marriages.
He, however, said the school still faced some challenges such incomplete infrastructure like staff houses, incomplete water installation as well as the girls’ dormitories lacking furniture, among others.
From there, President Lungu and his entourage comprising Government and party officials went on to tour Itezhi-Tezhi Hydro power station and a market besides holding a public rally after lunch.
Yabiipa manje!
PF have been overseeing this ripoff for 5 years. That’s how the 10 billion dollar Eurobonds have been squandered to enrich PF and their minions. Lungu has been on top in the Cabinet all that time and president over the last one year. There is no way he can distance himself from this scandal. He is a key player. Where does he think his fleet of PF campaign vehicles come from?
#ChagwaMustFall
I do not know how the Zambian contractors mind set can be changed. We are our own worst enemies. When a Zambian contractor is given an advance the first thing he does is to buy a Merc as if the buying of a Benz was an item in the Bill of Quantities. Imagine if most of the contracts were done by Zambian contractors the amount of money that would have remained in the country. You may say I am a dreamer but I am not the only one. I hope one day most contracts will be done by Zambian contractors.
What has eluded Lungu and most of these very shallow minded politicians is that the word local contractors is a foolish word to use. Don’t they have names and list of Directors? Why don’t you just call the police if a crime has been committed than labeling every local contractor the same way? Kambwili and these ministers are actually some of the notorious local contractors draining the government coffers that is why you can’t say the name.
Stupid lazy Zambians. Just give contracts to the chinaman
We still have a number of serious Zambian contractors like Gomes. Just check how they perform with private sector clients like the mines. The problem with working for Govt is (i) the corruption involved in procuring these contractors, the nichekeleko syndrome (ii) delayed payments compounded by lack of cover by financial institutions. Its a bigger vicious cycle.
The few that spend their first payment on prostitutes are the ones with “connections”.
That is right Mr President, they may cause something unwelcome. Develop a way to make them accountable. Next time you may want to start with the contracting process itself.
Lungu is just pretending to be a little bit angry at these guys. He knows fully well that he gave them money to do as they wished and so they did. Who was there to check the record? Who are the auditors, and where are they?
Preisdent Lungu you are not angry – you know what you did last year..! Eurobond and more debt was given to the these guys and they said THANK-YOU SIR…!
You cannot change that, no matter how hard you try – corruption is a disease, and it spreads like crazy. IT HAS SPREAD BAD KIND