ERRING CONTRACTORS TO BE BLACKLISTED - KCC

THE Kitwe City Council (KCC) will not hesitate to blacklist contractors that will be found to be putting up shoddy works on Constituency Development Funds (CDF) projects because the funds were public resources and people must get value of their money,’’ Kitwe Town Clerk Patrick Kambita has warned

Mr Kambita said the Kitwe City Council (KCC) will not entertain shoddy works from contractors working on CDF projects and that those found wanting risked being blacklisted from doing any projects for the local authority Mr Kambita was speaking at the weekend when the council signed 15 contracts to the sum of K11, 056,661.12 for part of the last quarter of the 2022 Constituency Development Funds (CDF) community projects The signing was followed after the clearance from the Attorney General as per the procedure of the Public Procurement Regulation of 2022

“Let me take this opportunity to warn contractors that the local authority will not entertain shoddy works from contractors and those found wanting risk being blacklisted. CDF are public resources and people must get value of their money.

Contractors are liable to public scrutiny because the funds being used for the construction of the community projects belong to the citizens. Let me also emphasise the need for contractors to empower the locals by engaging them to work within the project locations as opposed to hiring workers from other constituencies,’’ Mr Kambita said

And Council Head of Procurement Joshua Kaoma said the contracts will be performance-based and those that fail to satisfy the conditions of the contracts will be reported to the Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) for nonperformance as per regulation.

He also stressed the need for contractors to ensure that site workers are clad in Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) while on-site to ensure their safety. With the signing of the contracts done, the Local Authority through the Department of Engineering Services will in due course hand over the project sites to the contractors for them to commence the projects according to the contract.

Some of the projects earmarked for construction include classroom blocks, market shelters, police posts, footbridges, solar street lighting, and ablution blocks among others.

In the recent past, Chimwemwe Member of Parliament (MP) Allen Banda and Kitwe District Education Boards Secretary (DEBS) Christopher Nyungila have both expressed at the quality of desks being delivered at some schools which were bought under the CDF

Mr Banda said he was not happy with the quality of the desks and that he will not get the second batch because procuring such poor quality desks using CDF was a waste of public resources and if he entertained such kind of behaviour , people would think he was benefiting from the procurement process