There comes a time when we say I have spoken enough, it’s time to act – Nzovu
By Rhoda Nthara
PLEASE come out of that cocoon, come out of the past where things were not done properly, urges water and sanitation minister Collins Nzovu.
He warned that no district would be exempt from scrutiny and the government will pursue accountability relentlessly.
“Please come out of that cocoon. Come out of the past where things were not done properly. Where things were not done methodically. If we’ve given you a contract, go back to site, do those works – quality, time, cost and do them quickly before we come for you and you will not run away,” he warned contractors in Zambia as he toured the Kabitaka ponds in Solwezi district, North Western Province.
Nzovu stressed the necessity of improving project execution.
“Contractors must address issues related to quality, time, and cost without delay,” he said.
Nzovu urged them to return to sites and complete the work as stipulated in their contracts, stressing that failure to do so will lead to consequences.
“I can only encourage all contractors in the republic of Zambia, now I am speaking for the Ministry of Water Development and Sanitation, if we’ve given you a contract go back to site. Do those works, quality, time, cost. Do them quickly before we come for you because definitely you will not run away especially if government has spent money on it. You will not run away, we will find you and it doesn’t matter where. And sure you’ve seen that we are going throughout the country and we will go to every district. No district will be spared,” he said. “I am hearing that in Ikelenge as well has issues there. I want to put the contractors on the spot. Go back to site before we come for you. I want to still repeat myself, there will be consequences for non-performance. There will be consequences if government loses money. Some of the contractors whom actually have been given ultimatum in the last two months, some have gone back to site and they are trying to redeem themselves. Me I can only encourage all that there will be consequences if these contracts don’t finish. At the end of the day it’s the people you are working for, the people right now are crying for water, they are crying for sewer, you our civil servants must deliver. Please come out of that cocoon, come out of the past where things were not done properly. Where things were not done methodically. I have been preaching about this song for the past three months.”
He said President Hakainde Hichilema has been singing “this song for the past few years”.
“There comes a time when we say I have spoken enough and it’s time to act. When you look at the reports which you give, the reports are very shallow. So when you go to site and just ask two or three questions a lot of things are happening. For example, where we are coming from the report I received it doesn’t have any critical information at all. It doesn’t have how much money you have paid. I was discovering these things through the questions. It doesn’t have how much money you’ve paid the contractor. It doesn’t have whether the securities for example are valid or not. It doesn’t have information whether that tank had failed before or not. It didn’t even have information that it has an addendum and that there are extra works and these works have not been done,” Nzovu said. “So now you talk to the contractor and you query him then he starts crying and starts bringing out things. You now talk to the engineers and they start confirming the things. So why are you hiding information? Because when you hide information then it’s not good. I can tell you that whether you hide the information or not it will come out because when you go to site and see the contract itself, you see the works on site, so it’s useless to hide this information. Just bring it out so that we resolve these issues. The first thing is to resolve and I can see that I can’t explain it properly. Are you part of the contractors or you are the clients? Even when you are speaking, you are speaking like you are a contractor. So you need to speak like a client and you have power to make sure that the contractor works according to the contract.”
He stressed that hiding information only complicates matters and urged transparency to resolve issues effectively.
“I think let’s be serious about this. It’s not looking good if you were doing those things that time. Please change, if you are part of the contractor come out and be part of the client because you are the owners of these things. There’s no way we can be this careless and you know the bad thing is that these issues are everywhere. Everywhere you look now am sure you’ve seen that we’ve gone round Zambia, if you go round Zambia the water schemes are a mess. We’ve paid you’ve not finished [drilling] boreholes whilst MPs are crying for boreholes and they have promised their people, the boreholes are not there,” said Nzovu. “We give the same contractors as though it’s a reward for non-performance. He doesn’t perform on 50 boreholes you give them another 20. He doesn’t perform on the added amounts, added quantities, you give him some more. Same on sanitation facilities, they are not even … a good inspection for some sanitation facilities but what’s coming out now is that even some sanitation facilities can even be worse by now. So how are we going to prevent cholera? But make no mistake about this, we will resolve these issues. But in the end you will be punished. Just get the reports and try to resolve these issues but the last one is that just ensure government doesn’t lose any money at all. Money must not be lost.”
