How realistic are Malawi road construction costs: K6.6 billion for 4.2km road?
Road infrastructure is a critical component of development. It facilitates mobility of people and easy transportation of goods from one place to another. For more than two decades government through the Roads Authority has been engaging various contractors to maintain or construct roads both in the rural and urban areas. However, the country is losing billions of kwacha through overpricing, corruption and poor quality of roads. And the gravy train!
The pricing of many of these roads is questionable. This does not suggest that contractors should charge the same price. It suggests that contractors should be fair and not rip off government. How does one justify the cost of a dual carriage being constructed by Mota-Engil at K6.6 billion (almost 7 billion) from Parliament Building roundabout to Bingu Stadium a distance of 4.2km? The distance is just too short to justify such as colossal amount. How was the amount arrived at?
We should not be hoodwinked by the term “dual carriage” because the other two lanes are already there. Compare this to other roads: the 45km Nkhata Bay –Mzuzu road being reconstructed by Strabag is only K6 billion, the Blantyre Ring road will cost K4.6 billion, but it is 185km. The Ntcheu-Tsangano-Neno road will cost K9.6 billion, a distance of about 65km. The Lirangwe-Chingale-Machinga road which is 61.2km is pegged at K5.3 billion. Lilongwe City Assembly has earmarked about K3 billion for upgrading about 10 roads to bituminous standard, meaning that each road will cost less that K1 billion and the combined distance of these roads will be more than 4.2 km.
While politics is a huge factor in awarding contracts in Malawi (i.e. connections or corruption) accessing information about the details of how the cost is arrived at is not transparent. Owing to exaggerated costs and corruption, government is losing billions of kwacha. Road Authority and councils can do Malawians a huge favour by giving work to contractors who charge reasonably for quality work rather than just accepting any bid price.
The money saved from overpricing can be channelled to other critical sectors such as health and education. It is heart breaking to learn or hear that hospitals do not have drugs or students are dropping out of university or colleges while others cannot even make it because of lack of funds. Yet government is allowing contractors to be overpricing projects.
The quality of work of many road construction companies is also very poor. It is disappointing that shoddy contractors continue to win contracts. Is the RA or councils serious about their work? Lilongwe City Assembly CEO Moza Zeleza has said they have put in quality control measures for the roads to be constructed in the city. Last time Zeleza justified the poor quality by saying the roads were built for light traffic. Whether it is light or heavy traffic, quality of work should not be compromised. The council lost money through poor workmanship because those roads will soon require serious maintenance. Roads are meant to last decades not a few months or years!
Hence, contractors who failed to deliver last time should not be given work. The same applies to civil engineers who certified shoddy roads for payment or project managers hired to oversee the projects. They do not deserve to be hired again because they are unprofessional and did not do a good job. They were complicity in defrauding government. Travel around our cities and rural areas and see how worn out newly constructed roads are.
And no one holds such inept contractors and engineers accountable. And then there are contractors who do not finish work on time or simply abandon the project. Why give them another contract when they do not have the capacity?
The construction industry needs to be revamped so that pricing is more transparent. No corruption or favouritism in the award of contracts and quality of work should be of the highest standard.
How much did you want it to cost?
They use machines and they have a timeline that the roads have to be in good workign condition before repairs are undertaken, in short am sure investment evaluations were done to come to this cost so to me its fair. How many Malawians can exercise by running only covering 4km? few of us so think of machinery paving that road and making it easy for us to commute. To me the cost looks reasonable
I guess the greatest challenge in Malawi is lack of patriotism. Until we develop true love for our country, bearing in mind that this is the only country we will ever own, corruption will continue to be an order of the day. Another unfortunate fact is that, there is no school that can teach anyone patriotism. Its just a mere personal choice.
The problem with construction contracts is that it is a MAFIA, and you cannot control them. They will take their money no matter what.
Ntchito za mutharika. He is simply a guy who is not in control and very corrupt
This is the problem we have in Malawi, we think everything should be cheap. Cheap roads has ended up badly, poor work because the contractor knows that the price is not going to give quality work. Check in every nation that has quality road in place, they invest heavily in it. It is not only about pushing a grader and do the work, we need strong and solid foundation. We are used to those contractors who used hoes to do our jobs and those who used poor materials to tarmac our roads with only one layer and within a month, the road is in bad shape, starting putting patches that you can’t even recognise which one was the original tar. Much we may look on the cost we have also to look at the out come. We have seen roads in kawale area that were constr and at the end we started complaining. Vice President has emphasised the important of put up quality and reliable infrastructure, not just chimangemange. Think out side the box. Corruption has increased because we want quick and poor infrastructure put in our country and I say enough is enough, stop thinking like chickens and study other countries, how they do it.
@ Napoleon
You are just being stupid . Which countries are you talking about. These are technical issues and party sycophants like you can’t understand. How I wish I had your email address I would show you DPP supporter the kind of road Mk6.6 billion Would build . With that mentality you can’t fight corruption. Not surprising your government is one of the most corrupt government currently sitting on position 123 ( CPI). Uzimvere Chisoni . The writer has given you a very vivid example of the Mzuzu nkhatabay road which is one of the most complicated and difficult road to handle and construct due to the terrain around there . He has given you the figures in terms of how much that road is gonna cost. Compare that road with the parliament – stadium road in terms of everything . Inu mumatiphyesa mtima kwambiri mwamva mukamalankhula zopusa zanuzi.
@ Napoleon
You think like a fool. What you have written does not make any sense. It does mean that if the road is expensive then it is of high quality. No!
What the writer is saying is that many of roads are expensive for nothing. More money is given to contractors, but the quality is poor. Common sense should tell you that DPP leaders and public servants are pocketing the money. Starbag which is constructing a 45km between Nkhata Bay and Mzuzu charged K6billion. Yet the distance is long and the quality is very good. Starbag is by far the best contractor in Malawi. Mota Engil is winning contracts because of DPP.
The Bingu Stadium – parliament road is only 4.2km and costing K6.6billion. Don’t you see something wrong here?
Mota Engil is a favoured contractor of DPP. We know some money goes back to DPP because of corruption. Corruption has increased not because we want quick and poor infrastructure. No! it has increased because your DPP politicians and public servants want to make quick money before they leave office in 2019. Tell me is minister Nankhumwa a contractor?
Mota engil constructed a road in the First Lady’s area free. Ask yourself who can construct a road free.
Contractors who have no capacity to construct quality roads such as Fargo Limited and Plem Construction should not be given jobs.
Lipoma , I will not call you anything than your name. First have you asked yourself what type of the road is being constructed. The road is a dual carriageway, and don’t be cheated that because there is another road existing then it should be cheap. Have you done the costing yourself , if you know how.? Do you have any evidence of the procurement procedure and what was the need when they called for the tender process. Sometimes you better do so research before you open your mouth and vomit any nonsense because you belong to MCP. If roads where cheap Kamuzu should have made all the roads tarmac , mind you some of the roads that we have were still done by colonial masters. If you have evidence of corruption, why not challenge it by bringing evidence to the relevant authority. If you feel they cannot help you can take it to court aa a concerned citizen. Giving you my email is a waste of time to be arguing with someone whose character is bad. These platforms are built for constructive arguements , but I still still people like you who is taken by emotional, and think using foul language is knowing to argue. Work on your character, may be you grow up without proper parents hence your character is awful.
You’re right Napoleon. I saw a World Bank presentation a while back that put the global average for a paved single lane road at 3 million US dollars per km. We’re considerably cheaper at 2.1 million US dollars per km
As a company we ran into the similar obstacles when dealing with the Congolese government. We offered them a much cheaper alternative, but they made all sorts of excuses to shut us down. Instead the government opted for giving the contract to a chinese company who’s got back deals with them. Thus using an inferior product and the roads collapsing after a few months. Until this corruption is cleaned, these countries will never have decent roads at affordable prices. God bless.
Indeed our roads needs qualified contractors, that is why our country is way behind development, let us be reasonerble, if we can build quality roads and put tollgate in each road then the tollgates will help the country to maintain the roads across the country .
Malawians already pay high taxes (16.5%) plus we pay a lot of money at the road traffic. Some of that money should be allocated to fixing our roads. You don’t pay toll on shitty roads. STOP looting tax payers money and all will be good!
Kugawana from top down. How much will it cost the nation by the time we finish upgrading our road network in Malawi
This i how the ruling party steals our taxes in the name of developments which are highly overpriced. Can a nation develop like this?
Just like the chiefs in the late 1800’s who sold their own subjects to slave traders, our president has willingly opened the safe to the foreigners to loot, leaving the the entire sovereign state poor and unable to look after its own inhabitants. These political leaders are far from being patriotic or caring. They don’t even know how much is enough. People are dying of hunger and poor health and they’re busy driving in expensive cars, living in mansions, feasting like queens & kings and getting fat like pigs oblivious of what’s happening around them. No wonder they go to hospitals abroad for treatment and most have died in a foreign land; they send their kids to foreign universities use their own are substandard. I wish we could bury them where they belong…….abroad.
DONT BLAME THE CONTRACTORS. CORRUPT OFFICIALS HAVE INFILTRATED IN THESE CONTRACTS. THE COST OF CONSTRUCTING THE ROAD IS MUCH LOWER THAN THE FIGURES BEING MENTIONED. WINA WAWELUKAPO PAMENEPA.
This is a very good article and I totally agrre with you. Malawi can not develop with this stpe of stealing. I would give you one example, the old airport road in Lilongwe which is under construction. The one behind the contract is one Kondwani Nankhumwa, Local Government Minister. Nankhumwa employed his long time friend Denis Kwilimbe of Anglican Voices to supervise the work. Last week Nankhumwa and Minister of Agriculture Josephy Mwanamvekha called Nankhumwa to express his disappointment over his greedy behaviour of awarding contracts to himself so that his only pocket should be fat. The conversation ended up with Nankhumwa calling Mwanamvekha all sorts of names using unpallatable words. As a nation I dont think we can develop because this shows that APM is aware of all this and at the en of the day he (APM) is the greatest benefically. Investigative journalists do your job please, thats the tip.
BRILLIANT!!!! Malawians are unpatriotic. These people we trust to build our country are bussy robbing it. They would award a contract to anybody who would agree to give them back the overage money. So they connive to overcharge. Thats why we see them becoming stinking rich in a year if well connected with the ruling party. This is why our leaders can’t let go even when they are old enough to sit at home enjoying their final days in life with their beloved ones. Its either they’ve stollen alot they dont want to be exposed incase the new adimistration wouldn’t tolerate mafios, or they are ejoying reaping off tax payers money they dont want to stop. They’d fight, blackmail, brainwash, even killings to make sure they don’t go. We see what they are doing. Thats their bussiness. They don’t care how poverty within the locals is bitting. They are desperate now so they can continue reaping after 2019 elections. Very sad my beloved country.
Love the article, well illustrated.
Malawians, we need to ask ourselves these tough questions if we are to develop as a country.
Few greedy individuals benefit at the expense of the majority.
This malpractice has to be stopped.
Chilima can not tolerate this. It’s Mutharika and nankhumwa
Well Chilima is tolerating it. He is the VP for heavens sake. He must be complicit otherwise how do you explain the impunity with which Mota-Engil is robbing Malawi. In fact the head of state has open the gates to Malawi coffers for foreigners to invade. There’s no difference between our president to the chiefs (in the late 1800’s) who sold their own subjects to slave traders.
He is part. He is a vice president he knows this and he doesn’t use his powers. If he can’t use his powers now he can’t use as president. If he is afraid now he will be afraid in the future
This is broad daylight theft by DPP thugs that Malawians are crying about. Simple arithmetic K6.6-K4.2=K2.2 billion that goes directly to DPP operatives. They share at night in bedrooms in both local and foreign currency. That’s why now they are QUARRELING. AKPONDANA OKHAOKHA
Are you surprised why people like Phiri and Kondwani have become overnight multi-millionaires.
And they brag around claiming they are hard-workers. My FOOT!!! Even the EU envoy was baffled by the level of LOOTING. Unfortunately the president is just looking because he doesn’t want to let POWER SLIP OFF his hands.
SHAME on thieves!!!
We will get all money back. Get ready. Every tambala will be taken from any corrupt leader in June 2019.
THOU SHALL KNOW THEM
BY THEIR FRUITS –GOD CAN /WILL NOT ALLOW HIS PEOPLE SUFFER YONDER LIMITS ( ENOUGH IS ENOUGH )
THE COUNTRY IS FAILING TO
MOVE FORWARD BECAUSE OF SUCH CROOKED ACTS –STACKING MONIES IN SACKS BY POLITICIANS — NO SOLUTIONS FOR ORDINARY PEOPLE IN VILLAGES —
THE SUFFERING /CRYING OF ORDINARY PEOPLE IN VILLAGES IS TOO MUCH EVEN CALLISTA HAS SEEN IT (SIMPLE RESEARCH )—VERY SOON —I SAY VERY SOON —GOD ALMIGHTY GONNA INTERVENE !! IN JESUS MIGHTY NAME !!
when you cross check those contracts, you will be amused to see there is a closed mutual agreement by the party involved. it is so sad that our taxes are misused in such state. huge some of money in those contract will go to somebody pocket at the end sub-standard roads shall constructed.
My second say is the period for the construction of the roads. it is sad to see contractors going beyond the planned time. for example, last November, i was amused to see a sign at Chipokawoli Bridge which said the construction of Njakwa-Livingstonia will take 18months starting from November 2016 to a date in 2018,but on the ground, i can give 10% of work has been done on the road. will the the remaining percentage of work being covered in the remaining short period of time? no one knows but lets be serious on our plans.