The Contractors undertaking government projects in Kajiado County have been warned against doing shoddy work.
The Kajiado County Commissioner (CC), Joshua Nkanatha said contractors must carry out their work professionally while ensuring quality and complete them in the set time frame or face termination of their contracts.
Speaking after inspecting road works along the Kajiado-Namanga road with members of the County Development and Implementation Coordination committee (CDICC), the CC took issue with the poor quality of road works done from Il Bissil to Namanga town noting that the road which is already completed had developed potholes.
He said only 20kilometres of the road from Kajiado to Il Bissil town was re-carpeted well with road works from Il Bissil to Namanga done shoddily and yet the contractor had already received 40 per cent of the payment.
The re-carpeting of the road from Il Bissil to Namanga which is about 60 kilometres was done at Sh.495M.
The road once completed is expected to ease congestion, as well as enhance the movement of people and goods from Tanzania to Kenya through the one-stop border post at Namanga.
The CC directed the County Criminal Investigations officer to commence investigations and ensure the Resident Engineer and Contractor are arrested.
“From Kajiado to Bissil which is about 20kms the re-carpeting of the road was done well, but from Bissil to Namanga the work done is completely shoddy, the contractor and resident engineer should be arrested as this is blatant theft of public resources,” he said.
Nkanatha said contractors must not compromise the quality of works in order to save time and resources adding that any costs incurred through delays in completion of works will be charged to the contractor.
“We will not tolerate shoddy construction works. We want contractors to complete the projects in time but that must not be done at the expense of quality, when you signed a contract you agreed to complete the work within the agreed schedule. Timelines and quality must be adhered to, those who do sub-standard work will be forced to redo it at their own cost,” he said.
The Presidential Delivery Unit Director, Richard Tutah assured residents that the CDICC will continue playing its role of monitoring and ensuring that government projects are completed on time to provide intended services to the people.
Tutah said the government had allocated a lot of money to the projects and all contractors must deliver quality works, adding that with the CDICC in place, there is a paradigm shift in the way government projects are initiated, tendered, implemented and delivered.
He added that the old days are long gone when contractors colluded with rogue government officials to falsify progress reports of projects so as to be paid and vanish.
“As a committee we are mandated to ensure that all government projects are taken with the seriousness that it deserves. We are monitoring all government projects in the county so as to ensure service delivery and make sure that there is no wastage of public resources,” said Tutah.
The Director further warned that contractors who do not comply with required standards would be blacklisted and would not be considered for future projects by the government.
“The government will ensure there is value for every coin spent on its projects. The committee will recommend any contractor who does not deliver to be blacklisted and not paid as we have seen in some cases a contractor is paid 50 per cent while on the ground he has delivered about 20 per cent,” he said.
By Rop Janet
