ACTING Auditor-General Ron Mwamba has urged Government to take appropriate action against engineers cited in the audit report for doing shoddy works on road construction projects.
Mr Mwamba said engineers involved in inferior roadworks should be taken to task to avoid wasting public resources.
He said the report has recurrently revealed that some engineers have been involved in shoddy works, a development which needs to be addressed.
Speaking when he featured on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation’s Morning Live programme yesterday, Mr Mwamba said Government risks losing huge sums of money on substandard roadworks by some engineers.
“The Auditor General’s report has revealed that RDA does not engage people to supervise construction works at the initial stages of awarding contracts for infrastructure projects and this leads to shoddy works.
“Government should begin to take action against some of these engineers, the supervisors of the engineers of government projects,” Mr Mwamba said.
He also said under-performing contractors should be taken to task because projects that stall are costly to the government.
Mr Mwamba also welcomed plans by the Engineering Institution of Zambia (EIZ) to ensure that contractors involved in poor roadworks are arrested and prosecuted.
“EIZ’s proposal [to criminalise shoddy works] is a step forward. rather than just looking at these reports we produce, they must add value to our processes.adding value means we must be able to take action against some of these things that are brought out [in the report],” he said.
Mr Mwamba said the Auditor-General’s report will add more value to the governance system once its findings are acted upon.
And Mr Mwamba said following the amendment to the Constitution, the power to audit councils was transferred to his office.
He said 18 out of the 107 local authorities countrywide have so far been audited.
There’s nothing wrong with engineers the problem we are facing here is corruption it has really killed our country
In Kalulushi there’s one road which was done by Phoenix Contractors in 1991. 26 years the road is still passable with few port holes. but the roads which was done recently using euro band it’s another story. we suffering paying euro bond same are allowing shoddy works. it’s like we have to heart to our country. this has also contributed to our Leaders.
Thats $450m allocated to CB Province going to waste!!
Just empower the toothless AGs office to arrest…we all know these shoddy works are done by ministers proxy companies..even the likes of BUFFOON CK are now road builders.
The problem is corruption among those Engineers supervising these projects. RDA has got its people inspecting every stage of construction and i am sure like every project, they sign off each stage before going to the next. Why do they accept shoddy works?? Its either the scope of work is scoped to do those very substandard works or RDA staff is paid to sign off completion certificates with eyes closed!There are times when the contract can be telling the client what is good for the project but due to limited funding, removes key sections from the BOQ to accommodate his budget. In this case you can never hold the contractor accountable because its your cheap budget that has produced a substandard road.