Tanzania govt blacklists four water projects contractors

Dar es Salaam. The government will blacklist four contractors for their failure to complete big water projects on time, the minister for Water and Irrigation, Prof Makame Mbarawa, said yesterday.

Prof Mbarawa told journalists in Dar es Salaam that his visits to the project sites at Kimara in Dar es Salaam, Kigoma and Chalinze in the Coast Region established late completion of work compared to the planned schedule.

“These projects have taken longer than they should. Some of them have taken over five years, and mind you, the funds were provided. We don’t understand why they have not been completed,” he said.

At Kimara and Chalinze, Prof Mbarawa said the contractors have stopped working, while in Kigoma, the implementation was taking a chameleon’s pace. He warned that in as far as he remains the minister for water, he will not tolerate ‘unreasonable’ excuses from contractors.

Last year the government started to implement the Second Water Sector Development Programme (WSDP II) in its efforts to improve access to water supply and sanitation services in the country.

The minister said that any contractors who delay completing projects or underperform without any valid reasons will never be given any new tenders by his ministry.

Similarly he blamed the people in charge of the contracting companies for not doing proper evaluation on past performance of the construction firms before they are given projects.

“If the people in charge did their job well, we wouldn’t have this problem today. We must change, do not pick contractors out of personal interests,” he said.

Over Sh7 trillion has been allocated for implementation of the WSDP II.