75 contracted to build police houses
Ministry of Lands has awarded contracts to 75 contractors for the construction of 2 300 houses in the second phase of the security officers’ housing project.
The ministry’s Principal Secretary Davie Chilonga in an interview on Friday said the award of the contracts followed the completion of works on some houses out of 1 028 earmarked for the project’s first phase nationwide.
He said some of the houses have already been handed over to Malawi Police Service while others are at between 80 and 90 percent completion rate, but could not indicate how many houses have been handed over.
Said Chilonga: “For instance, at Ndirande Police [Station in Blantyre] we wanted to do the handover probably next week [this week] or early January, but the houses are ready in several sites.
“Some sites are stuck maybe because of forex, but by January or February 2024, most of them will be ready for occupation.”
On the cost and time-frame of the 2 300 houses, he said the ministry is still negotiating that each contractor should have own commencement dates and the deadlines.
An internal communication dated December 13 2023 signed by Malawi Police building, project and maintenance officer-in-charge Madalo Dingaliro indicates that about 1 350 police houses are earmarked for the second phase.
The communication advised police formations to ensure that land is available for the construction of the houses before site handovers to the contractors on December 18 2023.
According to the communication’s list, Mzuzu Police Station is expected to have 60 new houses, South East Police Region Headquarters in Thyolo will have 50 houses while Mchinji Police Station is expected to have 33 new houses.
“The sites will be cleared once handover has been done. Therefore, farming on the sites is at the owner’s risk,” warns the communication in part.
Malawi Government launched construction of 10 000 houses for security agencies across the country in December 2020 to be funded by government, Opec Fund for International Development and Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa.
Under the project, Malawi Defence Force and Malawi Police are each expected to get 4 000 houses while Malawi Prison Service and the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services are allocated 1 000 houses each.
The project was expected to be implemented in segments with 1 028 housing units to be built in phase one, 4 300 in phase two and 4 672 in the third phase.
According to the 2022/23 Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) performance report released in July this year, only 35 houses had been completed out of 1 028 that are in the first phase.
“[At least] 943 housing units in phase 1 are still under construction at different completion rates, with 196 houses at 90% on average and 797 at an average of 40% completion. In addition, 8 972 housing units, some in phase 2 and 3, are yet to commence,” the report further reads.
