Calls for stricter assessment of contractors

Prisca Manyiwa-Masuku

TRANSPORT and Infrastructural Development Deputy Minister Mike Madiro, has called for tight assessment and monitoring, during the tendering process to avoid awarding tenders to failures, who will not be able to deliver.

Speaking during a meeting at Kwekwe Civic Centre last Friday, Dep Min Madiro urged stakeholders to shun corruption during the tendering process.

He said this will avoid the process of giving tenders to contractors who will not be able to deliver. Some contractors in Kwekwe have failed to rehabilitate roads in the city.

“The Government is very clear on corruption, we do not want corruption and we do not tolerate corruption.

“I am not saying that they are (contractors) failing to deliver because of corruption but I suspect that, probably, the tendering is not clean or is the process to come up with assessment, and see if the company has the capacity to do the job,” he said.

Dep Min Madiro said the rate of failure by some contractors was too high and it showed some structural deficiencies, within stakeholders.

“This issue is nagging the Minister because the rate of failure is too high, it shows some structural deficiency in terms of how we are doing our job, “ he said.

He warned stakeholders to avoid cheap ‘‘fly-by-night’’ contractors who do not have a proper track record.

“There is a problem, I realised that people want to consider cheap contractors when it comes to tendering, but we should have a balanced approach, whereby the pricing goes hand-in-hand with the capacity.

“Let us avoid fly-by-night contractors simply because they are cheap, they should have a clear track record of the work they have done before and let us carry out upfront quality assessment,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry Transport and Infrastructural Development, has dropped contractors, who were working on Bessemer and Cobbar Streets, which connects the Central Business District and the industries in Kwekwe.

The development comes after the contractors failed to have the roads rehabilitated as per the demands of the contract.

The roads rehabilitation programme is being done by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, aimed at rehabilitating all the roads which have been in bad state for a long time.