Uasin Gishu County Development Implementation and coordination committee, CDICC has recommended for the immediate termination of a Sh2.18 billion road project over dismal performance by the contractor.
The committee observed that despite the Chinese contractor being given several chances to improve on his performance, not much has been achieved to date.
The contractor has clearly demonstrated that he lacks the capacity to successfully implement the project and our recommendation to the government agency responsible is to terminate the contract to protect taxpayers’ money, said the President’s Delivery Unit (PDU) Rift Valley Regional Director Truphosa Awuor during the site visit of the project.
Nanchang Municipal Eng. Development Group and Nanchang Foreign Engineering (K) Ltd-JV was awarded the contract to tarmac the 60 km Soy-Serekea- Kilimani-Turbo junction and Nangili – Ziwa Machine-Ziwa Sirikwa-Kerotet-Maji Mazuri-Moi’s Bridge Road at a cost of Sh. 2.181B.
The project that traverses Uasin Gishu and Kakamega counties was launched by Deputy President William Ruto in November 2018 and was expected to take a period of 36 months, ending in November 2021.
In March 2020 the contractor demobilized all machinery, equipment, and staff and abandoned the site for three months without notice or permission from the Resident Engineer an act the committee said amounted to total violation of the contract.
The contractor who however promised to return to the site to continue with the project defended themselves and blamed the outbreak of Coronavirus for the action.
But despite promising to improve by submitting a revised programe of works, the committee noted that the contractor had hardly achieved 2% of what he had promised.
67.6% of the project time has so far elapsed with a dismal overall achievement of 10.9% as at December 8th, 2020, observed the committee.
So far the contractor has only done some earthworks and bush clearing without a single kilometer of tarmack being laid.
The committee expressed concern that the contractor may not be able to deliver the project on time after abandoning the site for the last three months.
“The project is already way behind schedule and the contractor has not shown any intentions to complete the project on time,” said Awour who was accompanied by members of the CDICC including the PDU county director, the County Information officer and the Resident Engineer.
By Kiptanui Cherono
