Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) said it is impressed with progress of extension works the Northern Region Water Board (NRWB) is carrying out at Lusangazi and Ekwendeni.
This comes after the committee held an interface meeting with NRWB board of directors on Saturday. 
According to PAC chairperson Shadreck Namalomba, Parliament approved the money to help the Board to expand its works in order to help people access potable water.
“Parliament approved an additional amount of money to make $24.6 million dollars for the extension of project works. That money was borrowed from European Investment Bank and what we have seen is that money has been put to good use. We visited the site and they assured us that the work is in progress at the level of 87 percent and we were told that by 2021 the work will be completed so it’s quite impressive,” he said.
When asked why the contract was given to a foreign company, Namalomba said local contractors failed to win the tender.
On non-payment of bills by Government institutions such as police and the army, Namalomba who is Mangochi South West Member of Parliament said the Committee will book appointment with office of the president so that they can brief them on why the institutions are not paying bills.
In his comment, Dr. Asumani Ungwe, Director of Operations defended the Board on how they came up to choose a contractor.
“In terms of procurement of contractors we follow all procedures and these are international procedures which raise out the process which has to be followed, so as we are preparing documents we have to include criteria which would be used to assess the bidders in order to identify the lowest evaluated bidder. We don’t look at where a contractor comes from or who this contractor is all we do is use the criteria which is basically already disclosed in the procurement documents,” said Ungwe.
The committee inspected Lusangazi project, Ekwendeni project and Lunyanya dam where there is a main water source for the board.
