Kasama DC takes on slow contractor

Wed, 10 Jan 2018 13:48:30 +0000

…I expect no more excuses because Government is spending money on this hospital project

By BENNIE MUNDANDO

KASAMA district commissioner Kelly Kashiwa on Monday “breathed fire” on Explorer Engineering Limited, the contractor working on the Kasama general hospital for “doing nothing” since the contract was awarded to him in November last year.

In November last year, Explorer Engineering Limited was given a contract to rehabilitate the hospital and the project is supposed to be concluded within 12 weeks. The company was supposed to mobilise between November 20, 2017 and December 4, 2017.

But Mr. Kashiwa was enraged last week when he went on site to check on the progress of the works and discovered that nothing had been done, prompting him to summon the contractor to explain what his company had being doing all along.

Speaking to the Daily Nation yesterday, Mr. Kashiwa confirmed having almost differed with public infrastructure officers after they asked him to give the contractor time up to Thursday to avail himself as he was allegedly in Mongu at the time.

“We did not give him chance because you see, we gave him on November 20, 2017 and he needed to mobilise up to December 4, 2017. Last week when I went there, I found that he had done nothing and that is how I demanded that we meet him in person on Monday but public infrastructure officers wrote him a letter that he should come on Wednesday or Thursday.

“When I caught wind of it, I openly told them that what they were pushing for was total nonsense and I demanded that the contractor be on site on Monday. They argued that he was in Mongu but I told them I did not care. All I needed was his presence in Kasama on Monday at 08:30 which he did and was clever enough that before I arrived, he started doing some work,” Mr. Kashiwa narrated.

He said he was disappointed that the contractor seemed to be in disarray despite the contract being awarded to him almost two months ago.

“I told him to show us his storage facilities but I found him using part of the infrastructure for the hospital and I told him authorities will have to charge him because we are paying for every little bit of work and there is no way he must be using our facilities.

“I asked him to show me the tools he is using, and he brought out very old wheelbarrows and I told him he was not serious. Government is spending money on the project and so, I am not going to beg him to do the job. When we award contracts to foreign companies, these are the same people who complain that they are being side-lined but when you look at their workmanship and attitude towards work, it is pathetic,” he complained.

He maintained that the completion time for the project will not be extended from 12 weeks and that the contractor will have to double up his work to beat the deadline without compromising on quality.

“The duration still remains 12 weeks. He has promised to employ more people so that he speeds up the works and we have demanded that his work will be reviewed every week and he is supposed to be giving us his work schedule,” he said.