Friday, March 29, 2024

Luck Mulusa urges Zambia Contractors to prove themselves after another delay on Pedicle Road

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The Copperfield Mining Services Contractor’s Water Bouzer busy watering the tarring materials for their proper fixing as part of the process in the tarring undertaking of part of the 79 kilometer pedicle road.
The Copperfield Mining Services Contractor’s Water Bouzer busy watering the tarring materials for their proper fixing as part of the process in the tarring undertaking of part of the 79 kilometer pedicle road.

Government has expressed concern over the delayed construction works on the 69 kilometer Pedicle road that connects Mufulira District on the Copperbelt Province to Chembe District of Luapula Province.

Special Assistant to the President for Projects Implementation and Monitoring Lucky Mulusa expressed concern in Mansa when he addressed Government Heads of Departments.

Mr. Mulusa said the Contractor, Copperfields Mining Services, has been on the road for far too long without bringing the road works to completion.
He said the Pedicle road has taken three years and wondered whether the Contractor had the required capacity to do the Chienge – Kaputa road upgrading because he is the one who has been awarded the Contract as a co-venture with China Henan.

Mr. Mulusa called on Zambian Contractors to prove that they have the capacity and competency to handle big projects because foreign Contractors have so far performed better than the local ones.

He said the Pedicle road project should be revisited because it has taken too long to complete and there has been more than two extensions to the agreed completion time.

But Luapula Province Road Development Agency Engineer Gaston Meleki said the slow pace of works on the Pedicle was attributed to delayed payments to the Contractor by Government which has also led to the absence of the Supervising Consultant on the project from January this year.

And Luapula Province Permanent Secretary Boniface Chimbwali has objected to the extension of the deadline to August this year and stated that he is disappointed with both the Road Development Agency and the Contractor over the delayed works and delayed completion of the Pedicle road which in his view should be completed before the proposed August month end.

The project was initially given to an Italian Contractor Fratelli Locci who had his contract terminated before giving it to the Sub-Contractor in the same contract Copperfields Mining Services who took over in 2013.

The 70 Kilometer road project was contracted at the sum of K278 Million and should have been completed by December 2013 but the Contractor requested for an extension to November 2015 and now has requested for another extension to August 2016 month end.

11 COMMENTS

  1. Mr. Mulusa, its not a question of performance but payment.You guys have to pay contractors and this will make PF lose elections on 11 August.It is like you have neglected contractors,forgetting that they have families to look after.

  2. The expert govt agency explains to you why the contractor is failing & you don’t take responsibility. Factor in the challenges of working in DRC & the fact that ZMW278m (about $24.8m) was an under quote by Fratelli considering that in zambia it’s $1m/km. Then the massive (or is it unprecedented) loss of value of the Kwacha. I think Copperfields deserves praise for sticking in there this long.

  3. Its so unfair to compare Local contractors and foreign .the Local generate and wait for funding before and during works.foreign contractors get full funding from their countries or banks and so the difference.try and pay half or full amounts and watch what will happen.

  4. PEDICLE ROAD OF ALL THE ROADS UNDER REHABILITATION IS ONE OF THE SHORTEST (IF NOT THE SHORTEST), ROADS IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FINISHED WITHIN A YEAR. I HATE THIS IDEA OF INSPECTORS INSPECTING PROJECTS AT FINISH TIME AND NOT REGULARLY MANY TIMES DURING ITS IMPLEMENTATION. OBVIOUSLY, IT WOULDN’T BE SURPRISING TO NOTE THAT EVEN THE WHOLE ROAD QUALITY LOOKS LIKE IT WAS DONE AND INSPECTED BY MONKEYS.

  5. LT, SHOW US THE COMPLETED PARTS OF THE ROAD SO THAT WE THE READERSHIP CAN CONTEXTUALIZE THE WHOLE PROJECT. PA ZAMBIA MULI BANAN’GANI SANA. JUST INSERTING 2 OR 3 PICTURES OF THE ROAD WOULDN’T TAKE YOU A SECOND. OR AM I ASKING FOR TOO MUCH AS YOU DO NOT HAVE THE EXPERTISE TO DO THAT?

  6. you must first pay the local contractors on time…… Chinese companies can get cheap low intrest loans from Chinese banks while the wait for GRZ to pay Zambia contractors cant find that money while gov. delays payments

  7. The rad man blames govt for not paying. So the truth is that govt is to blame for not paying. Just like govt is to blame for demonstrations by unza and cub for not paying

  8. It’s not issues of payment but capacity,corruption and mindsets.The contractor has no skilled and competent management personnel that can manage such type of projects and make a profit for the company.The corruption involved in the awarding of capital projects to plant hire companies to skilful projects that requires engineering experience has cost the country a fortune. All because of munt wesu.
    Climatic conditions is not a factor as we always work around such conditions.Look at the company involved’s CV.Has it done any road works in the country or outside? This issue of friends of the party or is known by the big people will not develop the country and has contributed to poverty levels in Africa and Africa to remain as it has been for the past 100 years whilst Europe is always…

  9. Ba LT mulebako serious. In the caption you tell us the road is 79 km. In the story you say it’s 69 km. Then right in the very same story you say it is 70 km. These fake journalists!

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