By George Mponda

Karonga, February 15, Mana: Karonga District Council has warned contractors working on various projects in the district that they risk being blacklisted if they execute substandard work.

Karonga District Council Acting Director of Public Works, Yamikani Bokosi, sounded the warning Thursday after touring projects under Constituency Development Fund (CDF), Infrastructure Development Fund (IDF), District Development Fund (DDF), Health Rehabilitation and Governance to Enable Service Delivery (GESD).

"Substandard works are retrogressive to the council’s vision of improving livelihoods of it's residents as they drain the council's already limited funds by allocating resources to the same projects," said Bokosi.

He warned that contractors delivering substandard works will be asked to redo the work so that they hand over a structure in good usable state or else they will no longer be considered for future engagements.

“When contractors are given a job to do, we expect them to deliver quality work on time. This prevents government from spending resources on the same projects when other areas need the same," he explained.

Chairperson for Karonga District Council’s Works Service Committee, Councilor Isaac Kalambo said it was sad to note that some contractors abandoned projects without justifiable reasons.

"We also had a contractor who did a poor job on Nyungwe Area Development Commitee offices and we have since blacklisted that company from our projects," Kalambo said.

Kalambo said they will sit down with the Council secretariat to ensure that payments should not be made to contractors who perform below what is required of them.