By STEVEN ZANDE –
GOVERNMENT has said it is working at modalities to allow more local contractors participate in the ongoing countrywide road infrastructure development projects.
Special Assistant to the President for Project Monitoring and
Implementation Lucky Mulusa said the Government was keen to increase the number of citizen-owned companies to participate in constructing roads to create wealth among the citizens.
Mr Mulusa said that Zambians had not benefited enough from the road construction works while their foreign counterparts had grown rich from the many contracts which had been awarded to them.
He was speaking during the infrastructure development symposium on Thursday last week.
“It is disheartening that few Zambian-owned companies have benefited from these road infrastructure projects and yet foreigners have made millions of dollars which they are taking back to their countries of origin,” Mr Mulusa said.
He said in the last five years Zambian companies had performed poorly in implementing road projects.
Mr Mulusa said going forward the Government would ensure firm monitoring measures in project implementation to increase project efficiency and curb compromise in road quality standards.
He urged the citizens to be proactive and entrepreneurial in order for them to increase their participation in national economic affairs.
In an earlier presentation, Ndilila Associates architects and project manager Francis Ndilila called for deliberate measures to increase participation of local players in road construction works.
Dr Ndilila said there was need to ensure indigenous contractors had increased access to contracts to expand their performance.
He said the current trend where 83 per cent of the road projects were awarded to foreign firms against 17 per cent for local ones should be reversed.
Dr Ndilila urged the Government to ensure Zambians took ownership of the infrastructure development projects for citizens to treasure them.
He said it was important to engage local engineers together with foreign ones in road projects to allow the former benefit from their skills and expertise.