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MIDLANDS State University could have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when a library project under construction was botched and abandoned half-way by the contractor.
The Tender Board awarded the $4,5 million library project tender to a poorly resourced Masvingo company, Dohn Construction Company run by Douglas Mukaro.
MSU Registrar, Erasmus Mupfiga, said the library project was at a standstill after the constructor abandoned work after messing it up.
He said: “Work is at a standstill. The contractor had challenges and has since left. The challenges ranged from financial to human resources, including skilled labour. It had no engineers. Mistakes were committed. We were given the impression that the construction company was category A.
“Category A constructor is one who has the capacity to build using his own resources without being given money by the client for materials”.
Mupfiga said the library structure was shoddy and the new contractor will have to restart the project once construction work resumes.
“The building is not perfect. We will have to correct where things went wrong. However, we will proceed with the project based on advice from the Tender Board. The board will have to withdraw the tender of the constructor and award it to a new company.
It is going to cost us more now since we will have to destroy some parts as we restart the building process,” he said.
Government is believed to have pumped $3 million into the state-of-the-art library project which had an initial estimated budget of $4,5 million. Former Mozambican President, Cde Joachim Chissano also chipped in by holding a public lecture at MSU as part of the fund-raising activities.
The MSU fundraising committee has Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Cde Emmerson Mnangagwa, MDC-T Guardian Council chairperson, Sekai Holland and former Midlands Governor, Cephas Msipa as its patrons.
Mupfiga said most pledges made during the institution’s fund-raising activities were still to be honoured.
He said: “We never had enough funds for the building. We fund-raise as the building construction progresses. Some of the pledges are, however, still to be honoured.
Our pledges were for each stage of the building, for example we had companies that had pledged to provide roofing materials. However, like I said earlier, the project is going to cost us more now since we are going to destroy some parts of the poorly constructed building.”
About $1,5 million was raised in November 2010 at a fund-raising dinner graced by Cde Chissano.
The steel structures used for the library project are now rusty and the site shows the contractor abandoned work a long time ago.
Online Reporter