Government has expressed concern at the mediocrity works among Zambian contactors it is engaging in various development projects around the country.
Zimba District Council Secretary James Muwowo says government is concerned with the work attitude by most local contractors who he said often fail to complete works on schedule.
ZANIS reports that Mr. Muwowo said a named contractor engaged to construct ten housing units worth three point nine kwacha in his district was unable to do so for unexplained reasons.
The council secretary said in an interview at his office that the named contractor that two named local contractors have since abandoned the works leaving the project at slab level.
He revealed that the contractors abandoned the works despite being paid by the Ministry of Works and Supply .
He said the Zimba district council has since resolved to recommend termination of the contract to the ministry headquarters.
And a check by ZANIS on the site found that works have been abandoned and the contractor is not on site leaving the building materials and some tools.
You should tell us the names of these contractors! How do they manage to get the projects, advances? Is it because a good number of them are actually owned by people in sme government office? And why is it that all we hear is “Government canes shoddy local contractors” and nothing else thereafter? Mr. Govt Official answer me!
….this article is one sided to make meaningful comment….until I hear what the contractor has to say..
…..jobs/contracts are very competitive and hard to get these days so I do not believe that any contractor would halt and abandon any project for no valid reasons at all…..
….just three weeks ago, a Chinese contractor complained of govt failure to pay him his due for 8 months….he was still on site because of backing from the Chinese govt otherwise he would have done the same…..
…Muwowo claims to have paid the contractor….may be just a quarter of what the contractor had asked for…and all went to paying salaries…..and left with nothing for fuel and other requisites…
Procurement process is also to blame. As long as you can pay your way getting a govt contract is easy. But the hands that require to be “greased” for each ipc you get renders the whole business unprofitable. So any wise contractor would prefer to do shoddy work to make up. After all he will just be ‘caned’ by the people he “greases” and be fully paid.
Yes Zambian contractors do shoddy work; the road mending that they done on the Kabwe Lusaka road is deplorable, now we have uneven roads and bumps on the tarmac.
This is NOT a new phenomenon in Zambia. I have always said that us Zambians seem NOT to take pride in things we do. This attitude flows from senior Gvot bureaucrats all the way to the lowly paid “kantemba” contractor awarded a Govt contract. Our attitude towards “work” stinks to high heavens. But how does one expect anything different if people responsible for correcting such anomalies are MEDIOCRE themselves?
I recently went home (Zambia) to visit, and two things stood out for me. One, there is a look of building going on everywhere but no one seems to be in charge. For instance, Lusaka now looks like a GIGANTIC SHANTY COMPOUND—no standards at all! Two, the difference between projects done by foreign contractors (mostly Chines) and those by locals is visibly obvious!