By CHUSA SICHONE  in Kasama –
HOUSING and Infrastructure Development Minister Ronald Chitotela has disclosed that some Zambian contractors awarded contracts are selling the tenders to their foreign counterparts.
Mr Chitotela has also warned that contractors that get paid and abandon projects thereafter will be prosecuted and blacklisted.
Addressing a meeting in Kasama at the weekend, Mr Chitotela said it was unfortunate that some local contractors were not fully utilising the Government’s initiative to empower them through awarding of 20 percent of the total contracts awarded to foreign companies.
Mr Chitotela said instead of Zambian contractors trading the contracts for cash to their foreign counterparts, he expected the locals to utilise the awarded contracts to work towards upgrading themselves.
“Instead of working so that they can acquire knowledge and transfer skills so that after 10 years they can begin making their roads.
Genuinely you give them maybe five percent of that contract and then they go to the Chinese and say, ‘No if the total cost (of the contract) is K5 million, just give me K2 million, you will do the job, you will remain with K3 million’.
“That is happening! I am a minister and that is what am seeing among the Zambian business community,” he said.
Mr Chitotela wondered why some local contractors had gone to the extent of selling the contracts and yet they had been accusing the Government of shunning indigenous contractors in preference to foreign companies.
On crooked contractors, Mr Chitotela warned that contractors in the habit of abandoning projects once they were paid would not be spared.
“If we finish paying (contractors), my weakness is honesty and everybody that deals with me know, I will start visiting all the projects, if I find that you have married two wives instead of working, I will not just blacklist you.
“We have had a tendency where you think you can be blacklisted as a contractor, tomorrow you open another company. We will not blacklist your company, we will not blacklist you the directors as an individual and not just blacklisting, if you have received money even if you have not delivered, I will open a docket and prosecute you for obtaining money by false pretences,” he said.
He was also considering to start naming and shaming contractors in the media as some had a habit of accusing the Government of not paying them as the reason for delaying to complete projects and yet they received funding already.
Meanwhile, Mr Chitotela said the Government had identified seven municipal councils to be turned into cities early next year, among them being Kasama, Chipata, Mongu, Mansa and Solwezi councils.
Transport and Communication Minister Brian Mushimba said the Government was committed to empowering Zambians through the awarding of contracts and thus implored locals to establish companies so that they could benefit from the 20 percent contracts meant for locals.
“Register companies, make sure you are legitimate, make sure you have all your certificates so that you can get this 20 percent and once you get it, do not hand it over to somebody, make sure that you do it so that you can build capacity and you can start growing your company to take on the bigger projects,” he said.