By Elia Chibwe

Lilongwe, May 1, Mana: National Construction Industry Council (NCIC) has said Analytical Dash Board, which will be launched on Friday, will assist in increasing transparency and preventing delivery of substandard projects in the country.

Speaking during the press briefing in Lilongwe on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer for NCIC, Engineer Gerald Khonje, said the Dash Board is a tool that will assist all stakeholders and the general public to view information about the projects that have been uploaded on a platform called Information Platform for Public Infrastructure (IPPI).

"Now the Dash Board will be able to analyze information from each and every project and simplify that information so that when you go on that platform you will be able to see the steps.

"It will also help the general public to take duty bearers to task and, for us as regulators, we also analyze that information and identify gaps and develop interventions that will help to address those gaps," Khonje said.

He further said the IPPI platform is a mixed bag of projects and that prompted NCIC to come up with various interventions that will prevent substandard projects.

"There are some projects that progress very well, they are on course and within the budget but there are some projects that are delayed with varied periods.

"That's the reason why NCIC, after analyzing that information, we came up with interventions to be able to avoid delivering substandard projects and also to advise various stakeholders on what they should do to ensure we consistently deliver quality infrastructure," he said.

In his comment, chairperson for Construction Sector Transparency (COST) initiative, who is also chairperson for Blantyre Water Board, Joe Ching'ani, said the coming in of Dash Board is an indication of the strides and efforts registered by COST.

He also hailed the current administration under President Lazarus Chakwera for taking Malawi back to Open Government Partnership (OGP), which is a global programme.

NCIC aims at creating an enabling environment for a vibrant and innovative construction industry for the delivery of quality infrastructure and economic empowerment.