Maputo — Cuamba (Mozambique), 1 May (AIM) - Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Friday urged all vital forces in society to keep a watchful eye on dishonest contractors who compromise the rehabilitation of public infrastructures.

Guebuza was speaking in the town of Cuamba, in the northernmost province of Niassa, after complaints by civil society organisations against shoddy building work. The Provincial Governor, Arnaldo Bimbe, had also told Guebuza that the dishonesty of contractors, and their failure to meet deadlines was one of the major constraints facing the provincial executive.

"We have to be vigilant and protest against this phenomenon", said the President. Companies that inspect public works, he added, should bear in mind that they are paid for out of taxpayers' money.

Guebuza found it hard to understand how a contractor who had bungled one job, and had proved that he was "dishonest and lazy", could then go on to win other tenders. "If a company does a particular job badly, and then wins another tender, then there's something wrong", he said.

Niassa civil society bodies also complained that most tenders for public works are won by companies from other provinces and not by Niassa's own contractors. But Guebuza could see nothing wrong with this, and suggested that the local companies might fail to win tenders because they lack capacity.

He stressed that Mozambique is one country, and contractors can come from any of the 11 provinces, as long as they are honest and hard working. "We cannot choose the contractors of public works on the basis of their origin", he stressed.

The solution, he added, was to build up the capacity of Niassa companies so that they would be able to compete on an equal footing with those from the other provinces.

He said this was why the government had set up the Local Investment Initiative Fund, whereby a minimum of seven million meticais (265,000 US dollars) is allocated every year from the state budget to each of the 128 districts to fund projects that will create jobs and increase food security.

This fund was not for large businesses, he said, but for those who, although honest and hard working, are unable to obtain credit from the banks. The fund should be used "to promote local capacity to exploit the country's resources".