By CATHERINE NYIRENDA
THE Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday heard how Government paid a contractor K2.5 million to erect two water tanks in Luapula which collapsed a few months later.
This angered members of the Committee who indicated that Parliament would be compelled to take a Bill which would give the committee authority to arrest civil servants who lacked seriousness when handling national matters.
According to the 2013 Auditor General’s report, Logical Systems Limited was on February 5, 2013 engaged to rehabilitate and install 500 cubic metre water tanks in Mansa and a similar one in Kashikishi, at a cost of K2, 626,648 but both tanks collapsed in June 2014.
The records indicated that as of June 2014, the contractor had been paid K2, 541, 645.
Ministry of Local Government and Housing Permanent Secretary Stanford Msichili told the committee chaired by MMD Mumbwa constituency Member of Parliament (MP) Brian Chituwo that the contractor did not follow the right specifications when constructing the tanks.
Dr Chituwo said Parliament in other countries had advanced to the level where a police officer was present during committee meetings to arrest witnesses that appear before it and give unsatisfactory responses.
“This is economic sabotage and this is laissez faire attitude towards projects financed by public funds, we will be compelled to take the Bill to Parliament to ensure that such officers are arrested,” Dr Chituwo said.
Mr Msichili said in his submission that the contractor undertook to reconstruct the tanks and that the works would commence once a consultant was engaged to supervise the works.
He said the managing director who was supervising the work had since been relieved of his duties.
Patriotic Front (PF) Chama North MP January Zimba said the move was an outright theft and demanded to know the name of the officer who certified the works and if he was still on duty.
LPWSC acting managing director Fred Chiwaya told the committee that the project was left in the supervision of a fresh graduate from the National Resources Development College (NRDC).