Western Province Minister Richard Kapita has expressed disappointed with the contractor engaged to construct the administration block in Sikongo district, who has reportedly abandoned the works after being paid by government.
Mr Kapita said it was saddening that the local contractor Muco Trading Limited, was not on site to complete the works despite being paid to complete the works.
ZANIS reports that Mr Kapita made the remarks after inspecting the project in Sikongo yesterday.
And the Minister has promised to engage his counterpart in the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development, to ensure that that contractor moves on site and completes the project.
The Minister who also met departmental heads, reiterated government’s commitment towards the completion of all stalled projects in the district.
Earlier, Sikongo District Commissioner Blight Tombi appealed to government to consider giving projects to constructors who have the vision of the country and not only their own individual interest, as this derails developmental progress.
Mr Tombi said most local contractors have a tendency of abandoning the projects even after being paid, as can be witnessed in Sikongo.
The Provincial Minister visited was in the district to check on development projects in the area.
The Government is to blame because they are not funding these projects.Honestly, how can someone from lusaka survive without funding to a remote place like sikongo.
Give all projects to Chinese contractors as they are better and more credible than crooked Zambian contractors.
The Zambian contractor unlike their Chinese counterparts lacks access to cheap & affordable credit because of risk perception by financial institutions. Because of this, the only money they can utilise is initial payment by government. If government pays late the Chinese contractor can quickly go to Bank of China and get extra funding while the poor Zambian contractor miserably waits for release of the other balance to complete the work. Its not true that Zambians abandon works because of lack of seriousness.
Construction is costly process which must be funded by the client, in this case the government. A contractor securing funding from a local bank to sustain the project means the contractor will incur interest on the loan which means eating into his profit which is meagre any way. Prolonged times of non payment by government drives the contractor into running losses and into the ground. Its not on account of the incompetence of the local contractor that projects are not delivered on time, but more often than not it is failure of government to timely and adequately fund the projects. The government does not admit to this, but always blames the contractor.
But the story say the contractor was paid in full. So where did he/she take the money?
You believe these guys in government, who always utter contradictory statements. The must have not paid the person for a long time leading to them abandoning the project. As some mentioned our government needs to pay people on time as well as have people in the field to check on the progress of these projects. We praise the Chinese because they have extra money to fall back on in case of a payment delay, their government also funds and loans us the money for these projects giving them more leverage than local contractors.