Minister warns on quality of road works: UDF MP complaints about shoddy contractors

Minister of Transport and Public Works Jappie Mhango  has  admitted that some road projects are sub-standard but has warned construction companies against poor work in projects funded by taxpayers’ money.

Mhango spoke in Parliament in Lilongwe during question time where  United Democratic Front (UDF) member of Parliment (MP) for Machingwa-Likwenu Muhamud Lally complained that although many roads in their areas had been graded recently, they were already in a state of disrepair, meaning that government had wasted money on contractors who easily got away with shoddy work.

He said some of the contractors that are being given the job to grade the roads are not doing a good job.

“For example, Mr Speaker, Sir, some of these contractors are using graders and instead of reshaping the road they just remove the top soil as a result leaving the road without shoulders. They are creating a line in the middle of the road as a result most of the roads are not user friendly,” said Lally.

He asked the Minister what measures is the ministry of transport taking in order to address this issue.

“ I am talking about this issue in relation to my constituency where Chingale Road recently had a contractor who tried to grade it, but the job was very pathetic to the extent that constituents are even considering that maybe the ministry in future should try to use local people to do like they do in MASAF Public Works Programme. The road is in a pathetic condition,” Lally said.

The Minister said any shoddy work on any project sponsored by government is a concern to the government because it is money from taxpayers that goes down the drain.

Mhango said it is always important to share informationon shoddy work “ to enable us to deal with rogue contractors.”

He said: “The ministry will not tolerate any contractor that decides to give us substandard work and once we come across such type of contractors we punish them. There are a number of punishments that we give to such contractors.

“Firstly, is that we suspend them for a year or they do not access any public projects. Secondly, if the contractor continues misbehaving, we simply delete them from government register through the National Construction Industry Council (NCIC).”

Mhango  promised to find the name of the contractor which Machinga-Likwenu MP talked about “because the name of the road has been given to me to see whether indeed what he is saying is correct”.

He added: “ If that is the case, remedial measures will be quickly put in place to attend to the issue that he has raised.”