Local contractors frustrate government

Minister of Transport and Public Infrastructure Jacob Hara has expressed dissatisfaction with the poor workmanship of local contractors awarded road projects.

He has since questioned the manner the National Industry Construction Council (NCIC) contractors, hinting that a review is underway to correct the situation.

Speaking when he toured the Chitipa-Ilomba Road at the weekend, Hara said there is laxity in the way local contractors approach construction work; hence, the ministry will move to demerit some of them.

The minister further said even contractors that were given jobs to rework on road sections damaged by Cyclone Freddy have failed to do the work as expected.

Hara said: “We had several local contractors that we contracted to do remedial works after the cyclone. They had papers to show that they had capacity to carry out such works, but they couldn’t handle the small jobs that we had given them.

“This means that there is a problem in how NCIC categorises local contractors. Some contractors in the K5 billion category are failing to carry out works below K1 billion. So, we need to revisit the way we categorise local contractors.”

In a separate interview, NCIC spokesperson Lyford Gideon said the council has an elaborate registration system which enables it to categorise applicants in their rightful categories.

He said: “First of all, it should be known that NCIC regulations are very clear in that no contractor is allowed to accept works above their category.

“That said, NCIC insists that for every contract there should be a contractor and a consultant who essentially supervise the work of the contractor throughout the period of the works.”

Gideon further said NCIC has a monitoring and enforcement team that goes around to ensure that these parties are abiding to regulations and are respecting the terms of the contract.

“So, any deviation to standards can attract sanctions. Further, there is a number of capacity building interventions that NCIC implements for players in the construction industry all year round such as on tendering and estimation, contract management, concrete technology and a whole range of trainings.

“In addition, there are joint venture regulations which are a deliberate move to create synergies in the industry to ensure that players fulfil certain contractual requirements.”

He said government also has in place the 30 percent local stakeholder participation which is another way of capacitating the locals.

“Local players should get hold of these opportunities,” Gideon said.