By CHARITY MOONGA –
GOVERNMENT has said it will start re-negotiating concessions signed with various partners under the Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) in which it is losing out.
Appearing before the parliamentary committee on Communications and Transport, Ministry of Finance Permanent Secretary for Budget, Pamela Kabamba said Government was not getting the value for money in some PPPs it had engaged in, hence the need to re-negotiate some of the projects.
She cited the 20-year Kasumbalesa border concession and the Luburma Market in Lusaka’s Kamwala area as some of the concessions in which Government was losing out.
She said the original idea for PPPs was for them to assist Government alleviate the burden arising from infrastructure development costs, risks related to design, finance and operation, among others.
Ms Kabamba said Government would renegotiate the concessions following the formulation of the legal and policy framework governing the PPPs which had been non-existent at the time of implementing some of them.
She said the 20-year Kasumbalesa border project concession had already been cancelled in the interest of national security.
She said another project that was cancelled was the one for Zambia Railways Limited, which was also supposed to run for 20 years.
She said Government was also currently renegotiating the Longacres Lodge re-development which was supposed to last 30 years before Government could own it again.
Ms Kabamba said the Luburma Market concession should have lasted 65 years, but Government would renegotiate the concession with the contractor and reduce the years.
She noted that the contractor had already raised their investment and profit from the project.
Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Committee on Communications, Transport, Works and Supply yesterday took to task the Road Development Agency (RDA) and the Ministry of Communications over the awarding of an additional contract to a suspected bogus contractor.
This is in a case in which an unnamed contractor was awarded a contract to put up the Kasaba Bay runway.
However, a visit to Kasaba Bay by the committee, led by Senga Hill Member of Parliament Kapembwa Simbao, revealed that works done at the airport were shoddy.
The committee raised concerns over the contractor but later learnt that the same contractor had been awarded an even bigger project to work on the Ndola-Kitwe dual carriageway.
RDA chief executive officer Bernard Chiwala said the Agency was not part of the contract awarded to work on the Kasaba Bay runway as that was the responsibility of the civil aviation department.
He, however, said investigations were launched and it was established that some members of staff within the ministry had compromised themselves in the contract.
Mr Chiwala said one member of staff was certifying payments to pay his own company without declaring interest to the ministry and RDA.
He said the case had since been reported to the Anti-Corruption Commission.