— Govt . warns greedy contractors and civil Servants

Govt . warns greedy contractors and civil Servants

Kalulushi, 1^st July 2014, ZANIS — Government has warned some greedy contractors and self-centred public service workers not to frustrate its efforts to awarding local medium and small scale contractors in many of its projects.

Copperbelt Minister Mwenya Musenge says government would not take kindly to such elements as it was its intention to ensure that medium and small scale contractors grew from grade 6 to through to grade 1 level of NCC certification by awarding them contracts.

The minister said this in a speech read for him by Kalulushi District Commissioner Kampamba Mulenga at the Bell Equipment Contraction Finance Initiative work shop organized in conjunction with the National Association for Medium and Small Scale Contractors (NAMSSC ).

Mr Musenge said government had embarked on ambitious program to empower local contractors by enhancing their financing and contracting capacities through the ‘constructive finance initiative.’

He said it was saddened that the intended beneficiaries of the good initiative had not been reached yet because the bigger contractors who should not be the main focus had hijacked the program.

Mr Musenge said that the construction finance initiative had become a reality in the sense that government had facilitated the acquiring of these pieces of equipment from Bell Equipment through the 20 per cent sub-contracting policy which would enable a contractor to be paying by instalments.

And NAMSSC chairperson Mutable Memo says that Copperbelt and Luapula contractors were unhappy to have not benefited from the 20 per cent sub contracts.

And Bell Equipment Managing Director John Fleetwood said with their partnership with Stanbic Bank, they would work together to supply the equipment to the small and medium scale contractors so that they empowered them.

Mr Fleetwood said his company was more than happy to partner with Stanbic Bank so that they doubled the contractors business.