Beleaguered NHA

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 11:50:08 +0000

WHY is the National Housing Authority (NHA) struggling in the middle of one of the largest building booms this country has ever experienced?

Or put differently, why is NHA not part of Government’s infrastructure development programme, why should foreign contractors win tenders to build houses and schools which NHA is quite capable of undertaking?

Where is the malaise?

We read with keen fascination the NHA’s press release seemingly chiding us for exposing their failure to honour their obligations to employees by way of regular salaries.

 In a way, NHA answered the question of why its beleaguered workers had resumed protests over the government’s failure to clear their nine-month salary arrears. End of discussion perhaps? Not necessarily.

So, the vacant housing units in the Northgate Gardens housing complex that were developed in conjunction with developers namely National Pension Scheme Authority (NAPSA), MKP Holdings, China Jiangsu International and Workers Compensation Fund Control Board  who essentially are the ultimate owners, albeit the housing units, have remained unsold for a long time for obvious reasons.

Although NHA’s role in these developments had been construction, consultancy and in some cases marketing and sales, but the situation has a telling effect on its cash flow management as evidenced by workers in Lusaka who often down tools demanding, among other things, the dissolution of the board and removal of top management officials for allegedly bringing problems to the organisation.

Understandably, the completed housing units require services such as water, sewerage and electricity before they could be offered for sale or rent to the general public but we have lots of questions regardless; whether the provision of these services is done in conjunction with other relevant service providers like ZESCO and Lusaka Water and Sewerage Company due to the financial problems NHA finds itself in.

We have been left to wonder why it is that NHA is not involved in constructing housing units in the newly established districts in the country by the government.  This is all the more strange if we consider that historically, the NHA’s construction track record and its current cash flow problems do not add up.

The situation NHA finds itself in, could serve as a metaphor for Zambia’s predicament of stalled and abandoned construction projects in the rural areas by emerging but unreliable Zambian local contractors who abandon construction sites after partially being paid by Government.

If we get the on-going infrastructure construction projects in the newly established districts right, we could get NHA’s cash flow situation right. Fail them and we fail the beleaguered NHA workers.

There are some signs that both the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development and the Chinese foreign contractors still view NHA as not part of a long-term infrastructure development strategy. It could be argued that the Chinese involvement in housing, roads, schools and other infrastructure construction projects – still account for the myriad of financial woes at NHA. Yet, things are not as clear as they may be, mainly because of the way Chinese foreign contractors together with other government line ministries bundle and execute their assigned housing construction projects.

A golden opportunity to make the most of continued infrastructure development by the government would, however, be wasted and NHA may well emerge worse off than is necessary from a prevailing national economic boom in infrastructure construction development. Believe it or not, NHA employees have apparently only been paid salaries for one month this year through a Ministry of Finance bail-out package.

Their other complaint was that employees were allegedly being denied salary advances when faced with household problems. The workers accused management of non-remittance of Pay-As-You-Earn to the Zambia Revenue Authority as well as contributions to NAPSA even after making deductions from the workers’ salaries.

Lastly, comparing Chinese foreign contractors and NHA may be like comparing apples and oranges but both, perhaps Chinese foreign contractors more so, have a strategy for the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development.  Indeed, does the Ministry of Housing and Infrastructure Development and other line ministries have policies for Chinese foreign contractors and NHA?