Minister for Housing and Infrastructure Development Vincent Mwale has revealed that the government has released a total of US $73.7m towards the completion of the Kazungula bridge project with a balance of US $8.7m which will be paid before the end of this year.
The announcement comes after reports started circulating purporting that the Zambian Government had failed to pay its dues and would not honour the outstanding amount owed to the contractor.
According to the minister, an amount of US $82.3m has already been certified on the project of which US $73.7m has already been disbursed and the balance of US $8.7m whose certificates were received by the paying agent, National Road Fund Agency, will be paid before year end.
This is within the 56 days allowed for settlement of certified Interim Payment Certificates.
“I would like to put it on record that the assertions currently being circulated via social media, purporting that the Zambian Government has failed to pay its dues and will not honour the outstanding amount owed to the Contractor, are not correct. It is worth mentioning that the payment of the retention amount on the part of the Zambian Government is contractual and shall be met. As such, Ministry of Finance through the National Road Fund Agency is working towards the settling of the Interim Payment Certificate (IPC) before the end of the year,” he said.
He further added that, it should be noted that a balance on the contract in the sum of US $4.7m remains to be certified and issued to the Zambian Government.
The Kazungula Bridge project is a multi-national project in the North-South Corridor and is part of an infrastructure improvement programme that covers the whole corridor.
The project includes a bridge linking Botswana and Zambia over the Zambezi River to replace the existing ferry, and a one-stop border facility at Kazungula.
Great development projects for our people. If upnd members lie to you that there is no development under pf, I have given you permission to give them some dirty slaps to the face
Paying is not the problem…its paying on time these reckless thieves can’t do.
this is great news from the government…………..
Only a child who was born yesterday wouldn’t know when planning for the bridge started or a si lly foooool would think this is a PF brainchild. If it was not for Botswana’s prudency the South Korean contractor would have abandoned this project years ago.
The longer you delay, the more you will pay. If you had finished paying when the dollar was at 10 you would have paid only 50% of what you are going to pay now.
from the pictures, it looks like the bridge is complete
Razor – This is what these people dont understand …this sil ly thieving boy Vincent Mwale thinks he is smart mentioning all these figures ignoring the figures the contractor has added on due to late payment all that heavy equipment on site has to be paid for per day.
Look at the upnd sadists above. They are hurt when we get good development and happy when things go bad. Boooo shame kiki mwanyala
Please pay fast fast! borrow if you have to, because we are in a hurry to developed our Zambia. Building infrastructure which will stand the test of time is paramount to development. Wheather your are using stolen money, corruption money or whatever, get this done. We won’t ku beba. The only time we don’t mind borrowing is when it benefits the people not individuals.
Ba PF ni ba kapala
Kwena iwe ulichipuba zoona you scum bag price of s***….
Ati Senzangakona ala bapuba baad boi