The governing United Party For National Development –UPND Spokesperson Cornelius Mweetwa has confirmed that the construction of FTJ Luapula University together with a host of other Chinese funded projects were cancelled or postponed because some of them were overpriced.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Zambian Business Times –ZBT, UPND Spokesperson said all the projects that were set aside were either overpriced or there was no readily available funding for such projects as continuing to subsist would cost the government more money.
He alleged that in the previous government, projects were overpriced in many instances and that is why government is strict on re-negotiating on the already existing projects to save more funds.
And a UPND insider who asked for their name to be withheld told ZBT that the FTJ University project was grossly overpriced. They stated that if one looks at University of Lusaka – UNILUS new campus, it was built at $20 million funding but FTJ university was contracted at over $200 million. But the structures that were to be constructed were questionable in terms of pricing.
Meanwhile, Mweetwa who is also Southern Province Minister under the new dawn government explained that if the government had continued sustaining these contracts on the ground when there is no money to complete and deliver the works within the given time, the contractors were going to claim payments for standing time.
He also indicated that the projects were not cancelled but postponed, stating that what was cancelled was funding to projects – where there was no readily available funding to ensure that they don’t continue pending thereby escalating the contract price.
“Some of the projects were deemed overpriced and were postponed so that they could be re-negotiated in the same way the Lusaka Ndola dual carriage way was cancelled and re-negotiated.” He stated.
Mweetwa further told ZBT that going forward, contracts will not be entered into simply because there is a requirement for a particular project or building, but they will only be entered when there is available funding.
He indicated that this new process will ensure that the contract sum on the contract remains the amount which should be paid unlike the current situation when there is no money and the contractor keeps on raising the contract sum citing lapse of time and devaluation of the contract sum. Mweetwa re-affirmed that government will only resume the contract once it have sourced the money.
