Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
GOVERNMENT has established a technical committee to supervise the implementation of the Emergence Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2) as authorities seek to ensure tax payers get value for money.
This comes amid concerns that some of the contractors are doing shoddy work while road authorities are slacking in terms of supervision.
Government launched the ERRP2 programme last year after most of the country’s roads were damaged by torrential rains.
The programme to rehabilitate the roads was given a three-year timeline and is expected to end next year.
Implementation has, however, experienced some challenges, which authorities have started addressing.
The technical committee consists of officials from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ), Zimbabwe National Roads Administrator (Zinara), District Development Fund and local authorities.
On Thursday, the technical committee visited Tsholotsho Rural District Council where it assessed the roads being rehabilitated by the local authority.
Members expressed mixed feelings over the quality of workmanship as some of the roads were done to perfection while others were marred by irregularities.
Speaking on the sidelines of the tour Permanent Secretary in the Office of the President and Cabinet responsible for DDF, Mr Christopher Shumba, said the irregularities that have been observed in the assessment of ERRP2 programme has prompted Government to set up a technical committee, which will regularly check the implementation of the project.
“We have actually observed that some of the contractors are not doing the job as we expect. That is why we ended up coming up with a technical committee, which will look at the work done by the contractor and make recommendations.
“And in this case, we have realised that in Tsholotsho there is a road that was done without specifications and we want to look at all road authorities and make sure that when they submit roads to contractors the roads are submitted with specifications that should be followed by contractors,” said Mr Shumba.
He said this will lead to standardisation of all the country’s roads regardless of who would have been allocated the tender to do the job.
Mr Shumba said going forward road authorities will be expected to submit designs of the road they intend to rehabilitate before funding is allocated to them.
“It’s our recommendation that when road authorities do not produce road specifications, it’s not wise to finance them because what kind of road are they going to work on when they don’t have specifications?
“So, we are going to recommend to the ERRP2 technical committee to make sure that all the road authorities produce road specifications of the projects that they want funded,” said Mr Shumba.
He said the ERRP2 programme was spreading to all the corners of the country as a sound road network is critical for the development of the country.
Government is also rehabilitating the trunk road connecting various communities even at ward and village level.
“This is in sync with Government policy of not leaving anyone and any community behind.
Because when you connect all the communities with all trunk roads, you can be sure that everyone can participate in the development of the economy and the country,” said Mr Shumba.
PRAZ chief executive officer, Mr Clever Ruswa, who was part of the tour, said citizens deserve real value for their money hence the need for quality roads across the country.
“As Praz we have some objectives and one of the objectives is value for money.
We can only get value for money if we get quality services,” he said.
“In this particular instance, there have been observations by the general citizenry that some of the qualities are not up to scratch.
It’s unfortunate that when we came to this particular road, there are other fundamental issues that are coming out, which one would ask themselves, where do we miss it?”
Mr Ruswa said it does not make sense that road authorities did not have designs for some of the works that have been completed.
He said local authorities should account for poor workmanship while contracted companies’ risk being blacklisted if they are found to be faulty.
“We are saying we are using public resources and ordinarily projects of this nature, you come out with your gun chart and assign the right people who will be inspecting at each and every stage but the question is who was inspecting and if they signed the papers of payment what were they paying for?
“What were they measuring and these are some of the questions that we may want answers from the authorities,” said Mr Ruwa.
— @nqotshili
Online Reporter