AFTER his recent inspection of our highways and becoming fed up with the problem of “unqualified contractors” — that is, if a contractor is ever discovered to be unqualified after receiving a project — the minister of transport said incompetent contractors would have their names deleted from the ministry’s list of contractors and that jobs would then be handed to the next contractor in line.
In the lexicon of citizens, the procedure of referring a contract to the next contractor in line, who is also waiting to take his share of the cake, is a long process that may take decades. This would be the case as long as less experienced contracting companies still keep coming to the Ministry of Transport looking for fat prey while providing their services at a low charge.
Like a circus, maintenance companies have for years stood close to contracting companies waiting for their share in work.
What really amazes me is that contracting companies that win government tenders do not feel embarrassed in erecting large signboards bearing their names at the location of the project they undertake. After the allotted time for the project, the government and citizens discover that these companies have not accomplished anything beyond setting up these boards.
You can now imagine how many years it would take to complete a road project, especially now since contracting companies will take the project one after the other in a civilized manner.
I have a legitimate question: For how long will we continue to give projects to the next contractor in line after the first one fails? Are these contractors highwaymen?
Believe me, I am afraid that I may wake up one day to find the asphalt has been stolen off the road in front of my house so that another contractor may be able to win a new contract for constructing a two-lane asphalt road there.
