ZIMBABWE GOVT. CANCEL ROAD PROJECT CONTRACT DUE TO POOR WORKMANSHIP

Zimbabwe government has terminated the contract for the construction of a road project that belongs to a consulting firm owned by Zanu PF legislator and businessman Justice Mayor Wadyajena.

According to the reports, the rehabilitation of roads in Mashonaland West province was terminated over poor workmanship and failure to meet set deadlines.

The decision was made after Mashonaland West provincial roads engineer Simbarashe wrote to Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development permanent secretary Theodius Chinyanga recommending that the contract be cancelled since the company had done only 25% of the job.

The statement from Chinyanga reads; “The project engineer, acting in terms of clause 65(1) (e) of ZGCC4, hereby writes to the employer certifying that the contractor, Mayor Contracting Pvt Ltd, contracted to carry out the above mentioned contract has failed to perform according to the conditions of the contract. It is the opinion of the project engineer that the contractor is unable to to execute the works according to the approved programme of works,” the letter, dated January 22, reads.

“Furthermore the contractor has not yet furnished the client requisite performance bonds and insurances required for for contract signing. We recommend that the employer proceeds with the contract determination,” the letter reads.

Chinyanga then wrote to Mayor Contracting advising the company of its decision to cancel the deal.

“Please be advised that the project engineer has noted that the contractor has failed to execute works on the above-mentioned project and the progress achieved to date is far and below what was expected and moreover not commensurate with the time taken by the contractor executing the work on site,” Chinyanga’s letter reads.

“In light of the above and the fact that the approved project completion contractual time lapsed on the 14th of December 2021, the Project Engineer hereby issues the contractor a letter of intent to terminate the contract in terms of clause 4 (19840 as stated in clause 17 of the contract agreement. We hereby request the contractor to submit a claim of works that has been completed to date for contract determination. You are hereby directed to respond to this letter with your position on the intended contract determination not later than Friday, 7 January 2022,” it further reads.

In its response, Mayor Contracting blamed the Covid-19 pandemic for delaying the roadworks.

“We acknowledge our failure to finish all the works on the intended date of the 28th of December 2021 due to some factors which were beyond our control. In the latter days of November 2021, most of our working personnel were affected by the prevailing coronavirus and we had several positive cases therefore all who had been in contact had to go into self-quarantine in their respective homes to prevent any further spread of the virus within the camp,” the company said.

“The other issue involved equipment breakdowns with our diesel plant fitter being one of those sent home for self-isolation, repairing the equipment even for minor faults was now taking considerable time to fix as we no longer had a resident DPF on site and relief on calls of other sites. The works which were done constitute 25% of the total works to be done. We have since arrived on site to resume the works at a more accelerated rate as we have acquired more equipment to complement the one we already have on site.”

With the termination, the ministry will not begin a search for another consulting firm to complete a project that will truely benefit the people.

SOURCE: New Zimbabwe