Maintenance work at Mzuzu stadium suspended over contractual disagreements

Disagreements over charge rates between the contractor Front Line Construction Company and Mzuzu City Council (MCC) has brought the maintenance work of Mzuzu Stadium to a standstill, bringing more worries to football fans in the Northern Region if the faciliy will host the K90 million TNM Super League.

Currently, Mzuzu stadium is in tatters as it has developed heavy cracks  posing danger to lives of spectators and on the western side affecting 17 panels of the fence and due to heavy rains part of it collapsed.

The development forced the city council to entrust Japhet Nyondo owner of Front Line construction company to carry-out the maintenance work within three weeks period.

But after working on it barely two weeks, the project has been brought to a stop as news going round says the contractor is not happy with the royalty amount.

According to the foreman Julius Banda the council is paying the contractor K8,000 per panel instead of K15,000 which he asked for .

By the time work was suspended, the contractor had only done five panels.

A visit by this reporter to the Mzuzu Stadium last Saturday saw that work has been deserted as no- one was found on the project’s site.

Banda told Nyasa Times that failure by the City Council to pay the contractor handsomely was chocking job progress.

When telephoned to shed more light on the story, the contractor, Nyondo refused to grant the reporter the interview accusing the media of publishing false stories about him and the City Council.

For instance Nyondo claimed it was him who demolished the stadium panels and not the heavy rains as the media reported.

Mzuzu City Council’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. McCloud Kadammanja in an interview confirmed the suspension of the maintenance work but he blamed it on the continuous pouring of heavy rains.

“Yes, we have indefinitely suspended the work due to heavy rains and when the atmosphere is clear, we will restart,” said Kadammanja.

But when this reporter put it to him that the suspension has come about due to rate charge differences, Kadammanja later disclosed that the differences over rates are indeed there and was quick to say that they are being scrutinized by their Internal Procurement Committee (IPC).

The CEO defended his office for giving the contractor less saying they went into bidding process before the project started and it was the contractor himself who chose to undercharge himself.

“It is his {contractor’s problem and not my office {City Council} because we had to go into bidding.” Kadammanja said.

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