Mwanza — Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa yesterday issued a 15-day ultimatum to the Inter Country Contractors Company implementing road projects in Ukerewe Island in Mwanza Region to complete the work.
Taking the stance in his office in Dodoma, while meeting with the Minister of State in President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments-RALG), Angellah Kairuki, Ukerewe District leaders and officials of the Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads Agency (TARURA), he added that the company tasked with 13 kilometres stretch was supposed to finish the work in July, this year but failed.
"The sixth-phase government under President Samia Suluhu Hassan has released funds for undertaking various development projects, including road constructions. In this endeavour, we have given priority to local contractors, so what we expect from them is honesty, observe standards, value for money and complete the projects in time," he pointed out.
Elaborating, Mr Majaliwa noted that TARURA's regional and district managers must implement their duties properly in order to ensure that roads' construction in their areas are completed in time and at agreed standards.
In response, the minister said her docket has received the Prime Minister's directives and promised to review the agency's performance with a view to increase their efficiency in implementation of the projects under its mandate.
In 2017, when officially launching TARURA, Mr Majaliwa directed them to refrain from corrupt practices, especially in leasing tenders on road projects.
"Only competent contractors should be hired to execute road projects through competitive bidding," the Prime Minister said.
He said TARURA should stand firm in facilitating improvements of rural and urban road networks so as to enable people to transport crops and other items from villages to urban areas, adding: "You are tasked to facilitate the provision of social services to people in rural areas."
In the 2022/23 financial year, the government has allocated 838bn/- for TARURA to finance construction, maintenance and repair of 144,000-kilometres of roads network countrywide. Of the amount, some 776.63bn/- will come from the government coffers and the remaining 61.53bn/- from foreign sources.
Mid-August this year, President Samia directed TARURA to ensure that any contractor(s) who will perform shoddy work should be put on the blacklist from winning future tenders.
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She issued the directive at the event to witness the signing of a massive 969 contracts worth 331.39bn/- to improve rural roads network, whose local content was clear that they are going to be fully implemented by the domestic contractors by 100-per cent.
At the signing event, President Samia lauded TARURA for good work they are doing, but was quick to point at some hiccups in execution of the projects including shoddy work, inflating costs of projects and unreasonable variations in cost of project execution. She demanded for reforms.
"I'm impressed with the job you do but in some areas, there are a number shortcomings that require the authority to evaluate itself and consequently, improve in projects execution," she pointed out.
She also underscored the need for the agency to conduct due diligence of contractors without favour before awarding them any tender, insisting that value for money remains the key thing.
Equally, she called for close cooperation between the agency and districts' authorities to enhance smooth undertaking of the projects, insisting that this requires openness and transparency from all parties.
President Samia used the platform to remind the contractors that shoddy and substandard works will not be entertained, adding that they must observe integrity, efficiency and accountability in projects execution.
The 969 contracts signed were the first phase of 1,085 tenders announced by the government, as extra 117-tenders worth 47.71bn/-have been re-advertised for failure to get bidders with the needed qualities.
