By Isaac Salima:
Minister of Transport and Public Works Jacob Hara has indicated that government will not pay an additional K28 billion which the contractor working on the Nsanje-Marka Railway Line was demanding.
Two months ago, China Railway 20th Bureau Group wrote the ministry asking for additional funds for the project, initially pegged at K68.2 billion.
The contractor argued that the ministry had come up with extra works for the project, hence the increase in cost.
But in an interview on Times Exclusive, which aired on Times Television on Saturday, Hara said government has rejected the proposal “for now”.
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“We indeed received the proposal and we acknowledged that the contractor was justified to ask for the increase. However when I received the proposal, I considered a number of things including procurement law, which demands that we go through PPDA [Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority] which might take some time. So we have decided not to give them [the money],” Hara said.
He added that the contractor has been informed to do what they can manage with the money that was allocated for the project.
Speaking recently when Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Public Works members visited the project site, the contractor’s Technical and Business Development Manager Vitumbiko Mumba said the ministry proposed “several additional things” leading to the increase in total cost.
“Upon seeing what is in Mozambique, the ministry proposed the installation of five loop lines. The initial plan was to have two loop lines but the ministry proposed [that we] mirror what is in Mozambique because it will help in saving on operation costs,” Mumba said.
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He further indicated that the increase was necessitated by floods that hit the Southern Region district, which resulted in adjustments in the design.
The committee’s chairperson Enock Phale said the minister needed to explain and convince his committee how it would do it without additional funds.
“We do not have any problem with the minister’s explanation because we are made to understand that his position is the same as that of ours because we are both acknowledging the need for quality work if we are to mirror what Mozambique has done.
“The only difference is that he wants to achieve it with the current contract sum… We believe the additional amount is justifiable and necessary, looking at what the past cyclones have done to many of the country’s infrastructure,” Phale said.
The Malawi Government is funding construction of the 72-kilometre railway line from Bangula to Marka.
Mozambique already concluded constructing the railway stretch in that country, which is supposed to connect with the Malawi side at Marka.
