The National Council for Construction (NCC) says the move by government to stop advance payment to contractors will have an adverse effect on the industry.
Briefing the press in Lusaka today, NCC Executive Director Dr. Sylvester Mashamba said this is because most contractors will fall into debt to meet contractual obligations.
He said advance payment is important because it enables the contractor to buy materials and mobilise his plant equipment and begin works.
Dr. Mashamba has further bemoaned government’s blacklisting of 42 major contractors in the country.
He said the blacklisting of 42 major contractors in the country will result in few works being done as the number of contractors has drastically reduced.
Meanwhile, government is owes construction consultants and contractors an estimated K380 billion which has culminated over the years.
NCC Executive Director Dr. Sylvester Mashamba has since urged government to settle the outstanding amount.
Meanwhile, government is owes construction consultants and contractors…..
Ba Lusaka Times what kind of English is this?Please employ me as your proof reader so as to avoid these embarrassing sentences.
Contractor’s body…government ‘is’ owes construction consultants and contractors an estimated K380 billion which has ‘culminated’ over the years.
Little things add up.Do’nt create a reputation for poorly crafted headlines,ambigous and wrong grammatical constructions.
Create a job for some poor soul on the street:employ an Editor.
Its supposed to be CONSTRUCTION body, not ”Constructor’s”
Do you guys have editors? Gosh!!!
I bet Lusaka times needs an editorial board to appoint enlightened proof readers. It is disgusting to see such grammatical, typographical and simple spelling errors in an online news publication, not only read in Zambia but world wide. PULL UP YOUR SOCKS!!!
Just concentrate on the conceipt if you’ve nothing to share better keep quiet or establish your own blog where you can be marking english.
#5, its CONCEPT and not CONCEIPT.
Is it the reason you are trying to justify the silly errors in the article? Shame!!
#6 Thanks ba kafundisha
Ok LT’s gramma aside, l think local contractors have been a big let down to zambians. At best they do very showdy work. At worst, they simply pick up the cheque and run away to buy expensive cars without honouring their part of the contract. Its good that their reputation is finally catching up with them because they really inconvinience ordinary zambians. I commend govt for taking such a tough stance on them; this should help flush out all the tamangas and let real companies do the work. If you need start up capital, get a loan. Govt should not be in the business of pre-financing showdy characters.
Viva gvt. those chaps must have their own capital to do the job and get paid when the job is satisfactorily done. How do you run a company witout any operating capital.
Sarah, you are absolutely right, the word is actually ‘shoddy’ but as you said grammer aside we all have a fair share of these little typos. But seriously a contractor must have banking relationships and facilities that should allow them to commence work before govt writes a check.They should feel free to factor costs of bank charges into their final bills,this will be a worthwhile additional cost for taxpayers to pay than a shoddy road, bridge or an incomplete school or clinic. I dare say on the evidence of how local contractors have performed so far, govt must not be constrained to hire foreign contractors, we are in a hurry to develop and the idiocyncrasy associated with non delivering
…and cheating local contractors must be nipped in the bad. Advance payments in many instances are the very reason why some of these contractos have been delinquent, alternatively, govt should apply such advance payments directly to procurement of quality materials and other eligible payments to ensure work is done
Tizadya chiani ife, What shall we eat if this Modus operandi is abruptly stopped. We have already made projected budgets from the downpayments. Even in marriage there is lobolo down payments
Saddest part is that the GRZ seems to thrive on ignorance by not publishing the names of these construction companies. I assume that most of these are companies owned by MMD and GRZ leaders. You can imagine if any one of them were owned by say, Sata or some bedeviled opposition leader! We would have had a field day reading how poorly run such and such company is, or how fraudulent such and such company is! What I hate about Zambia is the blind faith that ignorance will bring about development. This faith is shared by all decision makers and those in power.
# 13 walasa