Government has given a one-week ultimatum to a company engaged to construct a palace for Chief Mphande in Senga Hill District to move on site and commence works.
Senga Hill District Commissioner Elizabeth Goma says it is disappointing that after winning the tender , the contractor has not moved to the site five months after site handover.
Mrs. Goma says it is saddening to not that the contractor has only dug the foundations at the site while no other works has been done.
She said this when she toured the project site in the company of officials from the provincial joint monitoring team on CDF and the local authority.
“I’m really disappointed that nothing has been done on this project. This contradicts the government’s commitment to ensuring that all projects that we are doing are delivered on time,” she said.
Mrs Goma said government is emphasising the timely delivery of projects to serve their purpose and wondered why the contractor is not working when government has the funds ready for the project.
The palace will be built using CDF allocations at a cost of over K3 million.
Earlier, Senga Hill Town Council Engineer Sikasote Kachengwa said the contractor was given a down payment in March but was surprised that nothing has been done so far.
Mr Kachengwa, however, indicated that he contacted the contractor, who promised to move on site soon.
“The advance payment was made in March this year, and I thought we would find the contractor making headway, but I called him last week and he was saying he was waiting for aggregates (stones), but most of the materials have been delivered at camp,” he said.
He said he was informed that the firm has brought much of the materials to the area but is looking for aggregate to start the works.
The project was scheduled to be completed in August, but the government may only extend it by three months since the down payment was made in March this year.
And Remmy Mphande, a community member in Chief Mpande also expressed disappointment with the rate at which the contractor was moving.
Mr Mphande encouraged the contractor to work in line with the confidence that government has put in them.
