Mozambique: Building companies approved for school work – AIM report

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Mozambique: Building companies approved for school work – AIM report

8:58 CAT | 17 Aug 2020

File photo: Noticias

The Mozambican Ministry of Public Works has approved a total of 21 companies who will, over the next 90 days, rehabilitate the water supply and sanitation systems in secondary schools and teacher training colleges.

This work should benefit 667 secondary schools and 15 teacher training colleges. It is essential to give the schools a reliable water supply and decent sanitation before they can reopen. As part of its precautions against the Covid-19 pandemic, the government ordered the closure of all schools in March.

The government also approved a list of 10 companies that will inspect the work done by the 21 building companies.

Public Works Minister Joao Machatine announced the lists during a meeting in Maputo on Thursday with the owners of the chosen companies. He said that 90 per cent of the building companies and 100 per cent of the inspecting companies are Mozambican.

The companies selected, he added, are obliged to subcontract at least 70 per cent of the work to local companies. This was in order “to spread around” the 3.5 billion meticais (50 million dollars, at current exchange rates), intended to cover the work – including construction, rehabilitation and repairs of the school water supply and sanitation systems.

This rehabilitation, intended to reduce the likelihood of any Covid-19 outbreaks in the schools, is “an extraordinary and emergency process”, said Machatine.

The government had therefore set up a technical advisory team to ensure that any gaps arising from the speed with which the work must be done will be corrected. Machatine said the advisory team will also ensure financial transparency.

The team will consist of representatives of the General Inspectorate of Public Works, the Order of Engineers and the Order of Architects.

Machatine urged the contractors to complete their jobs within the deadlines set down in the contracts. After the work was finished, the companies would be held responsible for any “anomalies” that occurred within the following year.

For his part, the Chairperson of the Mozambican Federation of Contractors, Manuel Pereira, urged the government to pay for the jobs in fortnightly instalments, so as to facilitate acquisition of the necessary materials, while the work continued.

Source: AIM