Maputo — The quality of work done by contractors is occupying centre stage at a meeting of the Coordinating Council of Mozambique's Ministry of Public Works, under way in the northern town of Montepuez.

Opening the meeting on Thursday, the Minister of Public Works, Cadmiel Muthemba, said the meeting must identify the problems that led to poor quality work, in order to define what measures need to be taken to correct them.

"The question of the quality of building work involves various stakeholders", said Muthemba, "and so we have invited to this Coordinating Council contractors, inspectors, artisans and other people experienced in the matter, including experts on assessing the quality of building materials".

Among the questions that Muthemba urged the meeting to discuss are the system for licensing contractors, the management of building contracts, the question of those contractors who abandon work unfinished, and the quality of the materials used.

Cited in Friday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias", Muthemba said the debate should also involve those who supposed to benefit from public works, such as the municipal councils, and the education and health services.

If the current situation of poor work continues, he warned, then the whole chain of activities to promote development would be prejudiced.

But the overall picture in the public works sector was far from gloomy, the Minister insisted. He stressed that important roads, particularly in the north of the country, have been rehabilitated over the past year, and that negotiations have been concluded to finance the Maputo Ring Road and the bridge across Maputo Bay.

Routine maintenance of tertiary roads was under way across the country, he said, since the government, as part of its decentralization programme, has allocated this task to the provincial and district governments.