The Road Development Agency (RDA) has dismissed claims that it was favouring foreign contractors in awarding contracts for road construction.
RDA head of public relation, Loyce Saili said the agency does not favour any contractors when awarding contracts but was offering equal opportunities for local and foreign contractors.
Mrs. Saili said all contractors bidding to win road construction contract were given an equal playing field but noted that local contractors needed to improve their capacity in terms of technical, equipment and trained personnel.
She disclosed that some local contractors have failed to execute projects they were given in certain parts of the country.
She said there was need for local contractors to partner with foreign contractors to enhance their capacity in road construction and rehabilitation in the country.
Mrs. Saili has meanwhile said the agency has embarked on rehabilitating and upgrading city roads in Lusaka to address the problem of congestion.
She said disclosed that the agency recently constructed the Lumumba-Kamwala by-pass road at a cost of over K10 billion as a way of easing traffic congestion in the city.
Mrs. Saili said the agency was also rehabilitating roads in Ibex hill, Avondale and Twin Palm road at a cost of over K57 billion.
Commenting on the Ndola-Mufulira road, Mrs. Saili said the road requires re-construction but noted that it will gobble huge sums of money.
She said the estimated cost per kilometer of the Ndola-Mufulira road is K3.5 billion.
She said currently, government has no sufficient funds to reconstruct the road noting that it would be worked on next year when funds are secured.
Mrs. Saili explained that most urban roads on the Copperbelt and other parts of the country require major overhaul, mainly rehabilitation and reconstruction work.
She said the road network of urban roads that needed to be worked on was around 5,000 kilometers at the rate of over K3 billion per kilometer.
Mrs. Saili however observed that some contractors, who have been engaged by RDA to do work, have performed very well while some have not performed satisfactorily.
She said the contractors that have not performed well will have their contracts terminated for poor performance.
She explained that the RDA does not take pride in terminating contracts it was obliged to ensure that contractors met the required quality of roads which will give tax payers value for their money.
Mrs. Saili said the whole K1.3 trillion that was budgeted in the 2009 RDA annual work plan for roads, has been used and roads been.
ZANIS
how can u treat local companies equally with foreign ones, it means there is no advantage of being a Zambian…
The road funds have been gobbled up by the new fancy RDA offices that are being built in Lusaka. Thats where all our taxpayers money is going – providing airconditioned comofort, while we ruin our cars on bad roads.
I too love quinoa in fact, I get it in pdrweoed or flaked form and put it in muffins and cookies that I make for my boys’ lunches and snacks. These are the perfect go to quickie food before or after a workout, swimming lesson, soccer game or boxing class!Lentils are a great source of protein too. I’ve got an organic black lentil stew in the slow cooker right now with a dash of thermogenic cayenne to add a touch of fat fighting to my dinner. Every little bit helps I also love putting a tablespoon of coconut milk in my steel cut oats in the morning. It’s a truly wonderful dietary fat that’s so good for you (plus it adds a great flavour that’s not too strong to my morning cereal!)
am not suprised that the picture above of the Lusaka Chirundu Road which was constructed by a foreign firm (actually Chinese) failed so miserably and will cost the tax payer even more money. i guess thats the testament to foreign firms…
#1, I totally agree with you. Any country you go to, they give top priority to their own citizens. Shame.
# 1 thats is what i call exposure. you have been exposed to various factors and as a result you have made a whole lot of sense than RDA.
The men at RDA prefer to award tenders to foreign contractors coz these have dont care when it comes to oiling the fingers thay award the contracts. At the end of contract they would have passed shoddy workers to Zambian road users. At current cost of 1km stretch at K3Billion and if a stretch of 3kms is left out the estiamted may be 45km That is alot for the guys. Out of a budget of K1.3Triilion is that worth of the expenditure. Many roads are still in bad shape. I agree with Kalulushi Mayor who urged Mulongoti to shake up RDA. What is happening to the road from Woodlands stadium to Chalala and Woodlands B Basic school to Chalala now that the rains are on. Where has the money been spent on.
Paula, the timing of your ailrcte is perfect. I have the same issue. I have been in Ireland for six years but don’t feel I can realistically portray it. I think of Canada first as a setting because I spent 40 years there and know it quite well. I may have to move the setting of my latest story there to make it really work, since my Canadian-ness seems to be coming through so strongly in my writing style. I also like your thoughts on how you start a new story. The video is great. I will have to look Mutinta and buy some of her music. Lovely!
Rubbish how can you treat the locals and foreigners the same?
it means us Zambians are less previledged. It high time you started giving us the first priority.
If government has ‘no sufficient funds’ then TAX THE MINES.
yEAH , . I would like to see Zambian firms favoured, but that would probably mean , more costs being transfered in the form of costs to zambian taxpayer. What i mean is if Chinese ltd quoted at K3b per km and Zambia limited quoted at K3.9 b per km, and a decision is made to pick Zambia limited then the taxpayer will be made to pay K 0.9 b more . However it can not be ignored that Zambians incur certain high costs like finance that make them less competitive and the Government should mitigate these disadvantages. We should also note that some of this foreighn firms also recieve incentives and surport from their government..
Another issue that should be considered is capacity , Government would do well to also provide training to enhance the manegerial and technical skills of Zambian firms so they can improve on competitivity both locally adf maybe in the region. Unfortunately however the donors who provide considerable surport to the infrastructure would not want to surport this idea at the expense of their own firms and taxpayers back home. Another problem I can forsee is acusation of corruption whenever it is reveled that A zambian firm won a contract when he had he higher bid and of course, people will start screeming that it is RB’s sons, Maureen or something cynical ,
Too much stealing these Engineers
……K3.5 billion per km = US745,000 per kilometre
. 5,000km x 745,000 = US$3.725 Billion. Cant be true!
In Zambia we treat foreigners with respect and its hurts me! Foreigners do shoddy work and every year you have to redo the roads. Wake up Zambians. Support your local contractors. My country has gone to the dogs.
It is only the corrupt zambians who fail to favour there own nationals ,, where ever you go in the world institutions do favour their own nationals in all things. I dont know why zambians are so daft ! so that they mistreat their own people.. I DONT KNOW WHAT SICKNESS YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM,,
It is obvious the Chinese are a favoured lot even when there are incidences of shoddy work. Maybe somebody is being bribed. Wish Levy lived a bit longer, there was some government then.
Loyce should be sincere when disseminating information to the public. Most of the works are through loans from various cooperating partners. If Japan gives the loan the contract will go to Shimzu. If China gives the loan we it will be China Geo or some other Chinese firm. Where does the Zambian fit in? The roadsip monies which are World Bank loans are all still biased towards the foreign firms. Govt has no policy to protect and give business to the local. At the end you get a loan from a country which gets the money back through it’s company and on top of that you pay interest. What remains in Zambia is salaries for the casuals.