- Dr. Joyce Banda Govt misprocured contractor for the road
- Continued deaths enroute to hospital are among challenges
Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) of Zomba Diocese says government choice to mis-procure contractor to upgrade the Machinga, Chingale-Lirangwe road to tarmac has not solved any long and increasingly sufferings of people from districts of Machinga, Zomba and Blantyre, rather another journey of misery.
The construction works for the road was stalled immediately when Peoples Party (PP) led Administration launched the upgrade of the road in March 2014, as Kuwait Fund withheld its resources after observing that Malawi government had flouted procedure by hiring a European contractor ‘Mota-Engil to do the upgrade works, tangent of the Loan agreement that ‘the contractor should be sourced from Arab country.’
The withheld money was a bill passed by the National Assembly in 2013 ‘Kuwait Fund Loan Authorisation’ valued at $10.2 million for the upgrading and rehabilitation of approximately 62.3km Machinga, Chingale-Lirangwe road to a tarmac by 2014 and then Deputy Minister of Finance hon Cornelius Mwalwanda signed the Loan agreement on 19 November, 2013.
Director for Zomba CCJP office Raphael Yusufu, says the stall, is continuously leading to frequent death among patients on their way to referral hospitals of; Zomba Central Hospital, Mlambe Hospital and Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.
Yusufu, further said Public as well as private servants are shunning away from working in the area; lack of viable markets even though the area is the food basket for Zomba, Machinga and Lunzu towns; and people are experiencing untimely delivery of materials such as school materials, agricultural commodities and FISP inputs when it rains because the road becomes impassable.
While expressing disapproval of the decision made by then government and caution current government to refrain from committing such unjust procedure any time in future he said “Times for politicking is over and let us develop our nation by making sure that we respect all the due process required as stipulated in contracts signed with the cooperating partners.”
“We have seen leaving of Mota-Engil from their designated camping site in Chipini without any explanation to the community. In addition, the road was to commence as soon as it was launched in March, 2014, however nothing has materialized on the ground.” observed Yusufu
Others who spoke to this reporter from Chingale Constituency, explained that in 2014, they had to cough in extra money to hire for a vehicle to carry their FISP inputs after the truck which was meant to deliver the same got stuck in Lirangwe and Pregnant women are still delivering along the way and patients dying on their way to referral hospitals.
But in a recent interview, Minister of Transport and Public Works hon. Francis Kasaila acknowledged the problem but was quick to mention that current administration is in talks with Kuwait and that it has already removed Mota-Engil on the road site so that new procurement of Arab world contractor begins as per agreement of the loan.
He said officials from Arab bank of Kuwait would be in Malawi by the end of March to finalize deal negotiations and within 90 days the Ministry would have all due processes finalized and by July latest the contractor could be on the ground.
“We are meeting with Kuwait Fund on how we move forward because they need to give us a go ahead, a no objection to procure another contractor. That process will definitely start as soon as we meet and agree on the way forward."
Kasaila equally expressed grief over the decision made by then government "It was a costly decision we have lost time, we had our relationship to save between us and the donors, because when you do mis-procurement you are putting yourself in bad light with donors as a country"
The Minister, then said "Our colleagues in Lirangwe, Chingale and Machinga they have been expecting this construction works to start long time ago but nothing is on the ground”
“We should endeavor not to do that because it becomes sad, if that happens it is the country that loses resources, we have lost time as well. Therefore it is something that as government we have learned and we hope we will not repeat in the future." He assured
However, Zomba CCJP Director further reminds Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government to live up to its promise of upgrading the road “Machinga-Chingale-Lirangwe is one of the priority roads promised in the DPP Manifesto and is high time they rise to the occasion by fulfilling their promises through ensuring that the socioeconomic rights of people living along this road is respected by giving them a tarmac road.”
Concerned people from areas along the road have gone to the extent of warning that if their road is not upgraded into tarmac by this regime, then they will campaign against voting for DPP and its candidates come 2019 elections.
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