Machinga contractor given two weeks ultimatum to complete Nkhande bridge
Community leaders from the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Mizinga in Machinga district have given Pricha Construction and the district council officials a two-week ultimatum to complete the construction works of Nkhande bridge.
The petition was made during a heated community interface which was facilitated by Center for Social Accountability and Transparency (CSAT) at TA Mizinga’s headquarters recently.
The community leaders also demanded an emergency sight meeting with the contractor, director of public works (DPD) and district director of planning and development (DPD) who did not show up at the strategic community meeting.
“We are not happy to note that the contractor, DPD and DPW for Machinga district council are not physically present at this strategic meeting because we desperately needed them to respond to some of the pressing issues as regards to different projects, including Nkhande bridge which has delayed by so many months.
Anyway, we are giving the contractor two weeks ultimatum to complete the construction works of Nkhande bridge as well as calling for an emergency sight meeting with the DPD, procurement officer and DPW for Machinga.
We want these public officers here to explain why projects are delaying while others are stalling and being damaged due to poor service delivery which we have observed as a community,’’ charged TA Mizinga.
TA Mizinga’s concerns were supported by the Member of Parliament (MP) for the area Daud Chikwanje and councilor for Kanjuri Ward Simplex Diwa, adding there were fade up with Pricha Construction in the area for what they described as ‘not impressive’ performance on the K62, 681.89.00 Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD) supported bridge.
According to the community leaders, the time-frame of the construction of Nkhande bridge was 90 days from January, but the work has delayed due to what they said ‘lack of seriousness’ on the part of both the contractor and council officials.
“Imagine, this is December and the bridge is not yet completed. This is extremely unfair because we are afraid that the project might be destroyed the rainy waters before it is even completed. We need answers from both the contractor and officials from Machinga district council who do not even inspect the construction works,“ said Lawrence Mphiya, Constituency Development Assistant.
DPD for Machinga McPherson Mwakhwawa referred this reporter to the DPW Charles Chinkkunda, saying the issue of project delay was strictly contractual.
He said: “Issues of project delay is contractual. The DPW is the contracts manager for the projects as such I may give wrong technical information if I delve into somebody’s area of work. But project supervision is done at two levels; at community level and technical level. At community level, project management committees are instituted and trained for this purpose to provide real time check on the project implementation to provide feedback to the contracts manager and other relevant stakeholders.”
On his part, DPW Charles Chinkhunda attributed the delay of the bridge to steel which is required, saying some sizes were not readily available by the suppliers due scarcity of forex and said can not compromise on quality.
‘’Additionally, concrete works are not simple to execute and one has to be very carefull. The contractor started with two spans which have been done and he will use the same form work for the remaining part of the bridge which can not be done in two week as demanded by the communities,’’ said Chinkhunda.
However, communities complained about substandard service delivery on the bridge and lack of access to adequate information and supervision by the council officials, especially the DPW; hence calling for the intervention of the council officials.
‘’We didn’t even know that they was lack of forex to procure materials by the supplier because we are not being briefed and allowed to voice our concerns to either the contractor or council officials, said TA Mizanga.