By Oliver Chisenga
WILLAIM Harrington says the Anti-Corruption Commission must take keen interest in the revelation by transport and logistics minister Frank Tayali that the contractor engaged by the PF government to construct the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway at $1.2 billion is back in the country and has agreed to do the works at 50 per cent the cost.
Harrington said the issue Tayali revealed smells of corruption and the contractor should be summoned for questioning by the Anti-Corruption Commission.
Last week, Tayali said the contractor who was engaged for the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway at US $1.2 billion had come back in the country and had agreed to do the works at 50 per cent lower
than demanded under the PF regime.
In 2018, the PF administration agreed to a contract to do the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway at a cost of more than $1.2 billion.
However, the Road Development Agency halted the construction of the road owing to financial constraints.
During a meeting with transporters from various bodies in Ndola over the weekend, Tayali disclosed that the contractor that was meant to work on the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriageway “using colossal sums of money has come back into the country and has agreed to do the works at a-50 per cent lower rate than what was demanded before”.
He said working on strategic roads to open up the country was on top of the UPND government agenda.
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“The Ndola-Lusaka dual carriageway is one of the roads that we have on top of our agenda to be worked on for the transport sector to flourish,” he said.
Tayali said there was no need to put up colossal sums of money to work on one road when the same amount demanded would work on a number of roads
But Harrington, a former communications and transport minister, said an ACC investigation was necessary because had the PF won the August
12, 2021 elections, the contractor would have been paid the inflated cost of $1.2 billion instead of the real cost of $600 million.
“This whole matter smells of corruption in a dubiously awarded contract over which the contractor should be summoned for questioning
by the ACC and to show cause why he should not be arrested for what appears to be a dubious scheme to steal money from the people of Zambia in collusion with the former Patriotic Front regime through overpricing,” Harrington said
He said logically and realistically, no contractor would offer to undertake such a contract at half the original cost
Harrington warned that the UPND government should not be seen to celebrate the presence in the country of the contractor if there was scheming with the previous government to extort such huge amount of money from Zambians.
He said if it is proved that there was collusion, the contractor should be blacklisted and banned from acquiring any other road contracts in Zambia.
“The revelation by transport and logistics minister Frank Tayali is extremely frightening and our new dawn government should not celebrate the coming back into the country of the contractor who may have connived with the former regime to syphon money from our country,” he said.
Harrington further said should the Anti-Corruption Commission act on the matter as proposed, Tayali should be able to assist with investigations and provide more information.