Substandard works irk Central Province minister
SUBSTANDARD works on the rehabilitation of two ablution blocks at Ngungu Primary School in Bwacha constituency in Kabwe has irked its Member of Parliament, Sydney Mushanga.
The K113,000 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) project that was undergoing a complete overhaul and completed in August last year had developed cracks with some the repaired parts falling off. Mr. Mushanga who is Central Province minister said during the inspection tour of the facility over the weekend that he was disappointed with the rehabilitation works done using substandard materials and directed the local authority to ensure that the contractor engaged comes back to re-do the job.
He said the shoddy work on the CDF project was an abuse of the taxpayer’s money and as Government, they would not tolerate such lack of commitment from some local contractors as it was a drain on the treasury.
Mr. Mushanga urged the Kabwe municipal council to monitor the DCF projects, especially during the construction phase so that something that needs to be addressed is done at the construction stage.
“I want to appeal to the council to invest so much into monitoring especially during the construction phase, we need to invest so much in monitoring so that if there is something that needs to be reversed, it can be attended to during the time when the project is still undergoing some construction,” said Mr. Mushanga.
He said if some local contractors continued with negative attitude towards work then the government would have no choice but to be selective in the way it awarded contracts to the local contractors. Mr. Mushanga stated that the government had resolved to award certain contracts to the local people especially local contractors coming from communities where the projects are being undertaken in order to build capacity in the local contractors.