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Contractors performance impedes completion of projects

Lack of financial capacity by some contractors in Meru County has been cited as a major challenge impeding timely completion of projects.
County Development Implementation Coordination Committee (CDICC) members who were monotoring projects in Tigania West noted that some of the contractors performing below expectations were channeling advance payments to existing works elsewhere.
Leading the team on behalf of County Commissioner, Alan Machari, area Deputy County Commissioner Stanislaus Apwokha on Thursday said contractors were expected to embark on mobilizing plants, equipment and personnel for the contract for which the advance payment was made.
Apwokha said some contractors in the sub-county had remained on the ground to be seen while they were doing very little to justify their presence adding that some had already deserted sites without any formal notice or explanation.
The administrator said the government was committed to facilitating implementation of development projects to benefit the public and reiterated nobody would be allowed to slow down the pace already set to achieve national targets.
“Those awarded contracts by the government should be ready and willing to compliment the employer towards giving public funds value to the satisfaction of the target beneficiaries,” Apwokha said.
He said the prevailing heavy rains being experienced in the area should not be an excuse for any contractor to justify why they were performing below expectations since some of them had been on the ground long after contract completion period had expired.
CDICC secretary, Loise Shuma put the 27.2km Kunene-St. Anne-Mulika road contractor, Don-wood Company Ltd to task to explain why the road had not been fully upgraded to bitumen status while the contract completion date was March 2019.
Shuma was concerned that the contractor had only managed 14 percent of the total works contracted long after the agreed date wondering why the employer should not terminate the contract with immediate effect.
She lamented that even after having a request to bring in a sub-contractor was approved, Don-woods Company Ltd had failed to do tangible earth works to enable continuous traffic flow especially during the transportation of national examination papers to various centers in the sub-county.
The contractor was instructed to ensure gullies on both sides of the road which cuts across the sub-county were duly filled up before the national examination exercise commences next week.
By Makaa Margaret

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