By FRANCINA PHIRI –
THE National Council for Construction (NCC) has warned of stern action against any foreign contractors who do not engage or jointly work with local contractors in the execution of construction works in Zambia.
NCC executive director Mathew Ngulube said the NCC inspectorate would be on the ground to check for compliance to this legal requirement of doing construction business in the country.
Mr Ngulube said legal action would be taken against any foreign contractor who would be found wanting.
He said the Government had set a policy to ensure that a minimum 20 per cent of all Government-funded projects was awarded to Zambian-owned companies.
Mr Ngulube said that this was aimed at empowering Zambian-owned construction firms and to create sustainable local contracting capacity.
Mr Ngulube said this during a media breakfast in Lusaka yesterday.
“We are in the process of conducting field research on the effectiveness of the policy so as to make appropriate recommendations for integration to improve itself,” he said.
Mr Ngulube further said the council would write to all procurement entities to ensure that the law was strictly followed during the tender process.
He said that NCC intended to make a difference in the way it operated and interacted with the contractors in 2018 so as to ensure local contractors were getting more value.
He said NCC would also be reviewing the contracts awarded to foreign contractors to ensure that there was an equal benefit for both foreign and local contractors.
Mr Ngulube said that foreign contractors must not be given projects that could be handled by Zambian contractors and that this was a way of promoting them.