Nchelenge Tender Committee dissolved

—The Nchelenge District Tender Board Committee has been dissolved with immediate effect.

Nchelenge District Commissioner (DC), Joseph Chisakula, announced the development during the first quarter District Development Coordinating Committee (DDCC) meeting held at the civic centre this morning.

“I wish to inform this August house that the District Tender Board Committee has been dissolved with immediate effect,” Mr Chisakula said.

The DC attributed the dissolution of the District Tender Board Committee to lack of transparency and the secretive manner in awarding of the contracts.

Mr Chisakula said time has come to work as a unit in order to foster development in the district and urged the Heads of Departments to work as a team.

The DC also urged the heads of government departments and the members of the Civil Society Organizations to help sensitize Nchelenge residents over the accessibility of the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission (CEEC) loans.

He said there is need to raise awareness of the people on how to access the CEEC loans in order to speed up the application process before the grace period elapses.

During the same meeting, the Nchelenge District Business Association (DBA) complained that it is not happy with the secretive manner in which the District Tender Board Committee awards contracts.

DBA Secretary, Felix Chileshe, told the meeting that the tender committee has always favoured outsiders when awarding contracts at the expense of local contractors.

Meanwhile, Earnest Musonda, a member of the planning subcommittee, blamed the awarding of contracts to the outsiders on lack of capacity to provide the required technical information by the local contractors.

Mr Musonda said the local contractors shun working with the technocrats when processing their bid documents and end up submitting inadequate information.

However, Nchelenge Member of Parliament (MP), Raymond Mpundu, disagreed with Mr Musonda and argued that the local contractors must be given a priority and consider outsiders as a last resort.