Lilongwe residents rubbish shoddy road project by Plem Construction: City Council under fire
Lilongwe City Council together with residents of Kawale and Chilinde townships are angry at Plem Construction company for what they call shoddy work on a 5-kilometre road stretch from Chilinde to NAPHAM offices in Kawale.
Plem upgraded the road in 2016 after winning a multi-million tender from the city council. As a client, the council emphasized during commencement on the need for city roads to be of good standard.
However, it is now evident that the construction company did a bad job on this road rendering it to potholes just in under 24 months.
“This is pure sub-standard work by Plem. They just used a small fraction of the money given to maximise profits and here we are struggling as if it is an earth road again,” lamented one Kawale resident Paul Kwenda, who uses the road on daily basis running business errands.
The shoddy work on this road is a painful reminder for Lilongwe City Council and residents because in 2017 Plem was also found in the wrong when they constructed another substandard road in Area 24.
Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development queried the council on the construction of roads in the city which have been rated as not up to the standard.
At that time the company was forced to rush back to the site and rectify the many problems but to no avail. Today the Area 24 Road is again damaged on many patches, making life difficult for car owners and commuters in the area.
Meanwhile, the city authorities say they will reconsider their future working partnership with Plem due to incidents of poor workmanship.
“It is highly unlikely that Lilongwe City Council will give any more projects to Plem. They have failed to prove their competence over the past years. We can not risk our funds on companies that are not ready to deliver,” a reliable source at the council said in a telephone interview.
Also in 2016, Plem was also courted in controversy for constructing a sub-standard road in Mzuzu City. The road developed potholes within two months after handover to the city authorities.
Plem Construction Ltd is equivalent to Fargo Ltd in so far as road construction standards are concerned. Kamuzu never allowed local governments to pay for such poor quality work. At most the constructor was told to rework the road project if he wanted to be paid. This is what happened to a German contractor that worked on part of Chiweta – Karonga Lake Shore road.
In Israel, few years ago, the government there filed a law civil suit against a contractor who had constructed a road using poor quality materials. The road developed cracks and pot holes soon after road users started using it. Court ordered the company to pay back to government what it got as a payment from the contract for breach of contractual terms which expressly outlined the type of materials to be used and standards to be followed, among others.
In Malawi, companies such as Roberts Construction, WC French and Alstadi have constructed roads of excellent quality. With corruption as full throttle, kickbacks are play in the road construction industry which are greatly compromising road standards. How I wish if the CEOs, HRs and Finance Managers, Procurement Managers as well as Auditors at City Councils were all Malawians of European origin. These could restore sanity in all the councils. They may have weaknesses but not these rot Malawians are seeing.
In Blantyre at Chirimba Light Industrial Area near the road junction to Zagaf premises, red sand was heaped on a huge pot hole developed by trucks as they negotiate the corner. It rained hours later and the sand has turned into a mess akin to porridge as trucks rumbles on it!! It is now a nuisance to motorists.
Ku Blantyre City kuli mwazangati akulemela daily ndi bwana wake CEO Chanza.Amwenye pafupifupi hour iliyonse mmozi akutuluka mu office zawo.
Amwenye a Plem amatha kudisha! Muwona awapatsa ntchito ina. Shithole country!
City Council, as a requirement you are supposed to inspect during and after construction to ensure quality is adhered to,,, was that DONE????
Where is the leadership? These companies are supposed to be answerable to the state
ENGINEER MUTHALIKA inspected during contraction and he was impressed. Who the f*ck are you to say it’s shoddy work. Don’t anger me. Wakukwanani yamikani… Asaaa MAVOTAVOTA
kikikiki dpp. dausi wadyapo apa ndi henry musa
PLEM is a bad player but the city council is the worst of the two. The Council is supposed to have an independent overseer of the project to see to it that Plem has constructed the road according according to agreed standards. But corruption is the root of all this.
Bwerani Mudzaone Nkolokosa road & Soche East ku BT kuno. Hardly 2 months of ceiling Pot holes……..now there pot holes within pot holes!!!!! kkkkkkkkk
Shame I was about to say the same. Ndipo kaya they used soil just to cover the pot holes! But am sure millions were paid for such poor work! My God this country!
Shameful Is this a road in a city? Let alone a capital city. Do our officials visit other countries and see what construction works take place in those countries? I am talking of not far away from us. In the S A D C region. Pa Zambia pompa apa. People in Malawi have become so self centered and corrupt and care less, about the good of our country.
We need Idi Amin in Malawi. Indians have ruined out country
Who is the guy who is forever boasting about the roads his government have constructed to aid development? Oh yes, it’s the President himself! These rapidly deteriorating roads are a metaphor for the DPP government and a new contractor, i.e. political party must be engaged in the May elections.
Someone in government or DPP has shares in the company or relatives are benefiting from these contracts. No doubt about that.
This is the standard of roads this government can build with incompetent contractors who they can not dump because there is a substantial financial gain all along. The minister in charge of road works is incompetent and big mouth who boasts of high standard work. But if these roads are of high standard then we are living In denial.
The fact of the matter is this DPP government is as inept as it’s leaders and country can not develop strong roads and bridges .This is why the people of Malawi should vote Mutharika and his incompetent government out in May. Bring handson and youthful Chilima who is transformational leader.
People, we need to take ownership of our projects, if we let Government to relax and do as it is doing, we will just be crying in the dark. Lets take a board step and start biting. Query to City is a start, continue the checks and get answers.
We were discussing the same issue few days ago with my friends. Why Malawi. Where is the problem. One of my friends from a consultancy engineering company said its also to do with quality of supervision from the client. He wondered whether the city council is technically able to supervise these works. He then said, I have noted for example that roads by Ministry of Lands are good if not best. The one in area 43 by MDF, Area 12 by DECO and area 46 by the same PLEM, You look at the roads and you are satisfied. These roads are intact. I hear the coordinator from Lands was on quality not quantity and top of it
but these roads are considered to be developments by dpp. shame on them
I dont condemn Plem but those who award it contracts. In corrupt Government like DPP what happens is that after award of contract senior awards officials and politicians go back to the contractor at night to ask for bribes. Hoping to win another bid the contractor use some of the project funds to bribe the officials. Plem also keeps some of the money for Blue Night Events instead of using it for projects. This is the ugly face of corruption. The worries expressed by LL city Council are not genuine. They are just meant to blindfold residents of LL City. Believe you me Plem will get other contracts.
ROADGATE is starting now.
Fufunzani kuti who is taking money money from PLEM. They are bribing someone these people
Ziboda and his dpp cult. Clock is ticking
This is shameful, how can government be wasting money like this?
And guys let join hands to monitor these projects, look how they constructing Shareworld bridge, guys we are passing there every day, lets stop there tommorrow and teach these guys. Are those bridge pillars???????????????????????????????????/
I wonder why the government continues to award this contractor contracts when he, in several cases, has failed to display professionalism and accountability in his works. Is it not insane? Anthu ena akumadyamotu m’ma contract amenewa.