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.”
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Big up Larry
Those who know the nitty gritty of contracts in Malawi cannot speak what the MP has said . The most important thing Malawians should know is that government through RA and ODPP are obliged to select the cheapest contractor among the eligible bidders. Due to the poverty and most contractors are burning their hands through kutchipisa ntchito So that they can win a contract. There by they compromise on quality in order to break even or have a little profit. The best RA can do is to revert to engineers estimate mode of selecting successful bidders.
keep up Lally if Malawi could have many of such MPs I think more things could have improved. It is very true most roads are left in bad state after the so called road grading due to the use of graders which instead of maitaining roads into better standard they remove the soil and put the roads into bad state. But please do not just speak there in the assembley but comfront these sub standard contractors through District assembley.
Thieves can not investigate themselves! [Dr Lazarus Ckakwera]
Malawian roads are not safe. Driving at night is very risky. There are so many obstacles on the road. No road signs and not reflective lines.
Mhango is so stupid. Take a drive on Zomba road from Maselema to Kachere township and see how badly the road is and yet it is less than 2 years old. Potholes are everywhere and in some sections there is no tar. The so called dual carriage is already history and nobody in the government or from the Roads Authority is taking action on this? Who are you fooling when we know what you are doing? You are watching bad things happening because you are getting a percentage from the same contractors.