State House Special Assistant for Projects Implementation and Monitoring, Andrew Chellah, says quality service delivery to the rural communities remains the government’s priority.
Mr Chellah was speaking after touring the World Bank-funded road works under the Improved Rural Connectivity Project (IRCP) in Chibombo District of Central Province.
He said IRCP in Chibombo is evidence of the government’s commitment to improve the welfare of rural communities.
Mr Chellah said the objective of the project is to connect rural communities with all-weather road network to improve the movement of goods and services.
He said the aim is to provide quality roads infrastructure for effective service delivery within and among communities in the area.
“As we know most of the parts of Zambia are rural and when rain come we tend to have travel challenges related to the existing roads. So, the Improved Rural Connectivity Project seeks to mitigate these challenges,” he mentioned.
Mr Chellah expressed satisfaction on the ongoing works in Chibombo and Mkushi districts but also observed the lack of participation from the local contractor on both projects.
“The only downside to this has been the lack of the participation of the local contractors. Sub-contractors right now are at zero per cent. We have not seen any sub-contractor,” he observed.
“But we are also happy to hear after concerns we raised in Mkushi as we speak, the acting Chief Executive Officer of the Road development Agency has issued an instruction to both contractors, consultants and RDA management teams in the two districts instructing them to start engaging the local contractors,” Mr Chellah said.
He added that government wants the skills of foreign contractors to be imparted on the local contractors so as to exhibit similar quality works.
“We are glad that we are headed in that direction and we expect to reap the benefits of skills being transferred from foreign to local contractors,” he added.
