Government has challenged the local entrepreneurs, including contractors to facilitate behavioural and mindset change in the construction industry saying this will enable them begin to appreciate the opportunities given to them.
Home Affairs Minister Hon Stephen Kampyongo told parliament yesterday that the government gives equal opportunities to both local and foreign contractors.
He said construction companies were graded according to their capacity to handle work and level of performance.
When it comes to performance, Hon Kampyongo regretted, some local contractors have been a disaster. He wondered how the government could help local contractors when they were the ones that have been failing to perform.
“Madam Speaker, give the Zambian SME a contract for the construction of modern housing Units and you have to follow them up day and night. Give the same contract, terms and conditions to a Chinese contractor and they will deliver within record time. So which contractor is my ministry expected to prioritise in our urgent effort to provide our men and women in Uniform with modern accommodation,” stated the Minister.
AND Hon Kampyongo reiterated that some local contractors were not able to do their work in time and this had always been the reason why they had not been considered.
For example, Hon Kampyongo explained – the performance of the loans accessed by the local SMEs was extremely poor.
“If you to go Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission -CEEC- and get a debt profile of the Zambian SMEs who have accessed funding, their loan performance is extremely poor.”
Hon Kampyongo attributed failure to perform by local companies to bad work culture and called for serious mindset change. “This has on several occasions forced the government to engage foreign contractor to do the work which the local are unable to do properly.”
He emphasised that there is need to seriously address the issue of mindset change to improve the performance of local contractors. “It is through mindset change that the local contractors will begin to appreciate the opportunities given to them.”
Meanwhile, Hon Kampyongo has ruled out the possibility of reducing the engagement of foreign contractors when the local begin to perform well.
He said his Ministry was part and parcel to the facilitation of trade, contractors and the implementation of Zambianisation. “When giving permit to expatriates, the ministry considers the skills not available in the local market.”
He said Zambia as a land linked country, can maximize its position to grow its SMEs.
“Zambia will not close its boarders to grow the SMEs. My advice to the leader that want the reduction of foreign contractors is that let them help the local contractors to change the mindset and actualise their jobs.”
This Gumu -gumu Chimpyongo is part of the reason Zambia is broke today.
What coherent advice would he give, apart from taking us further down the dumps?
Chimpyongo is NOT Ministerial material, but a Consultant in Illegal Violent acts, & Illegal Money exchange, learnt from the streets of Katondo.
The master of corruption has spoken in his capacity as a minister for polical violence and related home affairs.
The problem is poor funding by the Government.The Chinese has the money,they get loans from the Chinese bank.Off course, there are Zambians who misbehaves on contractual matters but in most instances, it is the government which delays to pay hence the project suffers.
This is like parents blaming their delinquent children of bad behaviour when the child’s behaviour is the primary responsibility of the parent….it is the duty of GRZ to implement and help shape mindset in our people.
Work culture has worsened with lungu , now Zambians don’t mind being labeled corrupt theives because their leader does not mind that tag…
When you have a silly Grade 12 Minister talking about developing a sector such as construction then you have issues… am sure this boy has a proxy construction company
Is that a cartoon? How can Zambia have a cartoon for a minister?
Simple statistics here and let people make a decision whether what Kampyongo is saying is 100% true: Look at this:
Contract Signe: 2nd June 2016.
Contract duration: 2 years
First payment certificate submitted: 15Auguat 2016.
First payment received: 15th August 2017 (after 1 year)
Loan Interest: 40%
Contract markup (profit and overheada): 25%
Who is able to analyse this scenario and be able to sustain their construction site for two years.
I totally agree with honorable Kampyongo indeed local (Zambian) contractors are a BIG disaster and anyone who cares would no blame Government because these guys dont really know why in the first place are in business. All they do is get advance payment, delay projects or do shoddy works or simply abandon the very project that should make them good references. So when contracts are give olto foreign contractors who deliver to project scope, and get even bigger contracts you start blaming Government, its not fair. Sadly, if the local contractors dont pull up and become more serious, well so let the foreigners do the work. What we want are good results and value for money, period and the best shall take it all!
And you are forgeting that GRZ pays after 2 years…only a Chink company with backing of China Bank get survive …
PF think the borrowed money is theirs and they in GRZ are separate from the people of Zambia……foo.lls the GRZ is responsible for the behaviour and conduct of its citizens who make up the local contractors.
These PF idyootes in GRZ think their role is only to offer tenders and steal…..no , if local contractors are not upto the task , it is your responsibility to make them up to the task ….how else are you going to build Zambia ?
How foolish can a minister be: That is what happens when you get a kampyongo to be minister when he can not even count up 20!!!
This man is foolish! projects done by the so called good companies from China are so badly done; The only reason this is never mentioned is because people like Kampyongo are paid off. Yes it is true that we have SOME bad constrictors BUT not all Zambian contractors are bad. The problem is that the ministries are so corrupt that they give their teacher or civil servant relatives to do they works and these people fail then say its Zambian who can not do the works! Foolish Minister!
This is very embarrassing and very typical of a black man….PF Zambian theif in particular….addmitting to the world that their people are useless …..if a white man in goverment sees that there is this problem….he will go about and fix the problem of mindset among the people through training and verification , that is the role of government…
Not these monkies we have in government who see the behaviour of their people as not their problem…
So you two jj and your tribal under5s haven’t read about poor CEEC. This CEEC is much better than the banks in terms of interest rates which your local contractors like kambwili avoid accessing funds from.
No one is talking about CEEC , kapoyongo is complaining about the work culture of our people but he does not know that GRZ is responsible for this same work culture , if there is a problem it is for grz to address
Africans in government think their role is just to steal and at rest others , they don’t understand that they are responsible for the direction the country takes
you cant go to china and get equal opportunities for contractors, neither can you go to the UK or Germany or even South Africa and get the same, thats the problem. wake up Zambia
On this I totally agree give a Zambian a contract the first thing they will do is to buy expensive ford Rangers and then leave some cash at Chicago’s at big buyers and when the party payment is about to finish that’s when they start to run around looking for cheap building materials and cheap labour. But for the China man its the opposite.
So what does GRZ, by the people, for the people do ? Give up on locals ang give all contracts to the Chinese or start retraining Zambians on sound work culture ?
GRZ has to rethink its role in Zambia. Stop pointing fingers at local contractors and instead retrain them. That is the wider role of government, not just to issue tenders and borrow…