Shady contractors put on notice and blamed for stalled projects

By PETER OCHIENG

Elgeyo Marakwet, Kenya: It has now emerged that contractors who won tenders in Elgeyo Marakwet County do not have the capacity to do the work.

County Executive Officer for Transport and Infrastructure Simeon Kiplagat said most of the pre-qualified contractors lack the skilled labour to undertake the various tenders they win.

He said the trend where contractors who have no capacity to deliver are given tenders would be done away with to save taxpayers’ money from going to waste.

Mr Kiplagat cited instances where some contractors were given tenders to construct health facilities and repair the dilapidated road network in the area despite having no machineries and skilled labour force to undertake the work.

He said they have set aside Sh42 million towards the completion of 43 projects whose work stalled along the way two years ago due to various challenges in the four sub counties.

The projects include construction of school laboratories, dormitories, health centres, dispensaries and water dams spread across the county.

“I want to make it very clear that we are not going to sit down while some people are playing around with the tax payers’ money. These kind of people have now forced us to revive several projects in Keiyo North, Keiyo South, Marakwet East and Marakwet West sub counties, which stalled due to poor workmanship during the defunct local authority tenure,” he said.

Speaking at Iten during a one-day forum with contractors, Kiplagat said the county government will disqualify contractors who do not complete projects they tendered for in time.

“We are not targeting anybody but let me make it clear that the county government is not ready to accommodate corruption and that’s why we are warning you before we kick you out. This is a new government with new rules and for us to succeed, we must abide by them, so be careful,” he said.

He added: “The issue of capacity is a major problem among some contractors in the area.”