Delayed payments for road contractors masks bigger problem

Kenya: Reports that road contractors
have declined to sign up for new projects
because they have not been paid for work
done is a sad reflection of the way the
Ministry of Roads, Public Works and
Housing and the National Treasury work.
The responsible ministries should move
with speed to clear outstanding payments
to ensure that the country does not miss
its set development targets.
It is unfortunate the ministry is being
accused of failing to pay contractors at the
very time when, together with other
ministries, it is reported to have
surrendered over Sh100 billion to the
Treasury after failing to spend it during
the last financial year.
Kenyans have routinely been told that
ministries could not spend their entire
allocations because of challenges to do
with procurement, inadequate capacity,
poor project planning and the rampant
litigation by unsuccessful bidders, among
others. But none of those reasons
explains the ministry of roads latest
failure to pay for work done.
The recent controversy pitting county
governments against the national
government and the three roads
authorities  — Kenya Rural Roads
Authority (Kerra), Kenya Urban Roads
Authority (Kura) and Kenya National
Highways Authority (KeNHA) on who
among them should manage the funds
meant for various roads cannot be blamed
either because the unpaid bills are for
work done last financial year.
Whatever is the eventual outcome of the
controversy, the Cabinet Secretary
Michael Kamau should come out clearly
and re-assure the anxious contractors
that they would get paid as provided for
under the contracts they signed with the
previous government.
Surely, this should not be a difficult thing
to do considering that Mr Kamau was the
permanent secretary in the former
ministry of works under the previous
government. There is a consensus that
the ministry has done a commendable job
in weeding out cowboy road contractors
who were a disgrace to the country
because of the shambolic manner in
which they did their contracted work.
To be sure, there are still a few of these
contractors still lurking in the shadows
but they must be fully aware that their
time is up.
It would be a pity if the ministry were to
handle the few good contractors badly
thereby forcing them out of business for
that would create the perfect opportunity
for the cowboys to return.
The hope is that the ministry is alive to
the possibility that the cowboy
contractors might be tempted to dust off
their ageing machines and try to return
on the back of the government’s
programme to give 30 per cent of its
contracts to women and youth.
This would be unfortunate. One way of
ensuring that the country does not return
to the days when a contractor would be
paid for shoddy work done on the same
road year-in, year-out is to strengthen
the ministry’s inspection department.
If that means recruiting additional road
engineers, so be it. The money they
would save the country by ensuring the
public gets its value for money would be
much more than such engineers would
earn in salaries and allowances.
Of course, the engineers would also need
to be closely supervised to ensure they do
not conspire to rob the public by
certifying sub-standard work for payment
—as their predecessors routinely did in
the not too distant past.
The key word should remain vigilance by
all arms of government charged with the
protection of public funds.

Standard digital

Category: