The Copperbelt Forestry Company (CFC), a Zambian wholly-owned company which was incorporated in 2000 as a management buy out company after the privatization of ZAFFICO has disclosed that it has the capacity to supply ZESCO with the required poles.
This follows assertions that no Zambian company is capable of supplying the poles that national power utility ZESCO shortlisted foreign companies. The shortlist leaked to the media showed that there was no Zambian company shortlisted, a situation that led to the questioning of what criteria was used with some accusing the committee of graft.
Meanwhile, CFC has confirmed with the Zambian Business Times – ZBT that ZESCO has since engaged them (Copperbelt Forestry Company – CFC) through a meeting that was held mid-mornings of today (31 March 2022) on concerns that they had been side-lined. ZESCO stated that they thought the company was not yet in operation after the fire situation it had in the late months of 2020.
CFC has since been requested to write to the ZESCO Managing Director and the Head of procurement and that they will be considered.
When asked why CFC was not initially considered, the company told ZBT that they are not sure if ZESCO will shortlist them or call them back, but confirmed that they have been advised to write back to the managing director and the head of procurement, stating that the previous applications to supply ZESCO with wooden poles might not have reached the Head of Procurement and the Managing Director, CFC stated.
This is in an issue where CFC said that it registered as suppliers which was the initial stage but when the list of short listed bidders was published, the company was side-lined, instead ZESCO only short- listed foreign companies only.
And the Company said that it had supplied Zesco with wooden poles before and that the last contract ended in 2020. Efforts to get comments from ZESCO procurement proved futile by time of publishing.
