K6.7bn road in fresh glitch

People of Neno District will continue enduring travel  hardships in  the impending rainy season after Roads Authority (RA) terminated a K6.7 billion contract for the construction of a 20-kilometre (km) section of the Ntcheu-Tsangano-Neno-Mwanza Road.

RA said yesterday it cancelled the contract for the affected section between Neno and Ligowe due to the contractor’s alleged failure to comply with the 30 percent subcontracting rule.

Besides, the authority further said based on the works undertaken to date, the contractor was behind schedule.

The authority, which says it is on a mission to go after all contractors that are not performing according to agreements as they make government  lose billions of kwacha in the process, said its next stop will be the Rumphi-Nyika-Nthalire Road which has also stalled.

In an interview yesterday, RA board chairperson the Reverend Matilda Matabwa said the decision was arrived at after the contractor, China Geo Civil Engineering, had requested termination of the contract over several factors.

She said the authority had engaged the contractor on several occasions to get to an understanding on the stalled project, arguing that since 2020, there is nothing much to show on the 20km section.

Said Matabwa: “When he [the contractor] started, there were issues  of devaluation and price escalation of fuel. He complained, we understood and we revised the contract upwards to accommodate those challenges, but still he didn’t start working.

“So, you can imagine from 2020 and this is 2023, for three years people of Neno have been denied road infrastructure.”

She further said the contractor was supposed to hand over the road in February 2023.

Said Matabwa: “But there is nothing, apart from his camp, quarry site, and machinery, so we did not understand each other; hence, amicably agreeing to terminate the contract. We are in a process of procuring another contractor.”

She said contracts for the road, which goes up to Tsangano Turn-off on the M1 in Ntcheu, were being processed for every phase of 20km and China Geo Civil Engineering won its first contract from Ligowe to Neno.

Said Matabwa: “We had done compensations, and what he has done is to dump gravel on about seven km of the road. The major loss is the development of the area! Yes, there are monetary losses. We are paying the consultant on a monthly basis because he is on site.

“We want to see to it that our contractors are performing according to agreements because government is spending a lot on things that we are not getting desired fruits. We are following up several contracts, and next is for the Rumphi-Nyika Road.”

When contacted, the company’s representative Desheng Tian said “we will give you our reply soon while we refer you to the consultant as well as the client for official response”.

But the consultant, Mavuto Mhango, said “my terms of contract as the consultant restrict me to speak to the press.”

National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) spokesperson Lyford Gideon stated earlier that due to non-compliance with subcontracting requirements, the K6.7 billion Ntcheu-Tsangano-Neno Road stalled.

Meanwhile, government is feeling the pinch of the 25 percent devaluation of the kwacha in May 2022 as contractors are demanding increases in their contract prices due to rising cost of materials.

The contractors are also pushing for a review of an increase in their withholding tax to 10 percent which Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara conceded recently that it threatens to “kill” the construction industry if left unchecked.

He expressed the sentiments following a decision by Unik Construction Company, which was constructing part of the Rumphi-Nyika-Nthalire Road, to ask for an increase in the contract sum or they will terminate the contract.

In a 2021 ruling, High Court of Malawi Commercial Division Judge Ken Manda slapped China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited with a $2 million fine for breaching contractual agreements of two projects with local firm Fisd Company Limited in relation to the 30 percent regulation.

The NCIC Subcontracting and Joint Ventures by Foreign and Malawian Firms Order of 2014, under section 10, stipulates that a Member Practice, whether in a joint venture or subcontract arrangement shall be responsible for 30 percent of works by volume and value.