Government has prioritized the monitoring of developmental projects to guarantee Zambians true value for their money.
Works and Supply Deputy Minister Mundia Ndalamei said contractors should provide satisfactory services to the public once they were contracted to carry out certain projects.
Mr. Ndalamei, who was in Luwingu district to inspect ongoing road projects, said this yesterday when he paid a courtesy call on District Commissioner George Mwamba.
He said government was concerned about numerous public complaints that there was too much poor workmanship by contractors.
He said government will now focus its attention on consultants who are engaged to supervise the projects on its behalf before dealing with the contractors.
Mr. Ndalamei said any shoddy performance by a contractor will be blamed on the consultant who is paid to ensure that works were done according to specifications.
Meanwhile, government is happy with the quality of workmanship on the 145 kilometre Luwingu-Nsombo-Chaba roads project which was rehabilitated at the cost of K20.5 billion.
Mr. Ndalamei has since urged Sable Construction Company to continue with the good work so that government could get the true value for their tax payers’ money.
He said government was happy with both the pace and quality of the works on the road.
He has since implored the Road Development Agency (RDA), which is supervising the project, to speed up the designing of Luena bridge that was washed away in the last rain season.
Mr. Ndalamei said there was need to ensure that a new bridge is constructed before the next rain season.
And Luwingu District Commissioner George Mwamba said people in the district were happy with the commitment government has shown towards the road project.
Mr. Mwamba said the Luwingu-Nsombo-Chaba road was key to the economic life line of the district because it leads to productive areas.
He noted that the completion of the road project will reduce the suffering people endure when ferrying their produce to the market.
According to the contractor, works which were initially scheduled to be completed in August this year may be completed by next month.
ZANIS
These contractors must be watched every now and then. You cant just contract them, leave them and expect them to thoroughly do the job. Its high time!
So, our governemnt did know all this time that every development project needs to be monitored. Whether it’s done by foreigners or Zambians. It’s only by doing so that people capable of doing the job would get it. They should also include a clause in the contract: Should the work not be done according to the agreement, the person in charge of work should be penalized with a fine.
we are used to all this crap of this and that…our time is coming. The train is coming, people get ready.
we always get the same comments .”govt happy ,govt impressed .”when infact it is not like that .the govt needs to overhaul and introduce structures that will bring experieneced engineers to ensure works are perfomed as per design and specifications . a minister would not know .unfortunately zambian engineers are scattered all over the world.those around due to lack of development will not know shoddy from excellent.consultants are the same guys bringing nothing new but always hiding behind govt failure to get the best .shame on the zambian engineers in zambia
How can you monitor yourself? The same minister is the contractor. Zambia is a sinking titanic. We are not going anywhere.
All private contractors must be monitored by govt bodies whether it concerns roads, bridges, or any other national project. And it must be done regularly, say every month. But it gets complicated when it is govt itself doing the project. In this case we assume govt never does shoddy works!
lack of experience amongst construction professionals and contractors in Zed!!!!