By NATION REPORTER
MOST local contractors are a letdown to the government and so require capacity building on how to manage big contracts if they are to be considered for huge projects, Road Development Agency (RDA) director and chief executive officer Grace Mutembo has said.
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Ms Mutembo says the RDA has tried to build the capacity of local contractors by awarding them huge contracts, but were still failing to execute contractual obligations successfully.
“I will be very candid…our contractors do fail us. There is need for a deliberate government policy and programme to have capacity building for our contractors for them to reach a level where they can deliver the works at a higher level in terms of value and deliver to the expected quality and within the time that is required,” Ms Mutambo said.
Ms Mutembo was speaking yesterday when she appeared before a parliamentary committee on national economy, trade and labour matters chaired by UPND Mwandi MP Sibeso Sefulo to make a submission Public Procurement Act amendment bill.
She said therefore, there is need for capacitating local contractors financially, technically and on the overall financial management of the project. Ms Mutembo said the National Council for Construction (NCC) to provide special training on how to manage projects for it to be successfully delivered.
“The current law, where you engage a local contractor, it is mandatory that they are in association with a citizen owned company that will assist our local companies getting the know-how of managing a big project in a long term,” she said. The RDA boss was responding to PF Chama South MP Davison Mung’andu who wondered why foreign contractors could not instead be given the 20 percent sub-contracting of works while the entire project went to Zambians.
“Why sub-contract when we should be working on the assumption that Zambian contractors should be put first. The concept of sub-contracting had arisen because almost all big contracts were owned by foreign companies. The Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage way is being done by a foreign company, almost everything is done by foreign companies,” Mr Mung’andu said.
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