Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) has withdrawn a notice to award contracts which would have seen the electricity company spending K707 million for construction of three houses.
The government owned company issued a notice last week of its intention to award the procurement of works for staff houses at its power stations in line with the Procurement Act.
All the three projects involved construction of a manager’s house, servant quarters and fence. The one at Nkula Power Station was pegged at K223, 415, 675, another one at Tedzani Power Station was expected to cost K243,209,349 while the house at Kapichira Power Station was expected to cost K240,521,513.
The notice also included construction of a hostel and construction of several senior staff houses.
However, following concerns over the cost of the houses, EGENCO has withdrawn the intention to award contracts to companies that won the tenders.
According to the company, it will restart the tendering process and the tender will be re-advertised in the newspaper.
“It is the hope of EGENCO that contractors with the capability to deliver on the quality, and as per specifications, with a considerable fair price will avail themselves to take up the task at hand and deliver the projects that are in tandem with modern day construction standards,” the company said.
EGENCO has, however, complained that it does not have adequate houses for power station managers and members of staff as some live in makeshift houses which were left by contractors
“This is demotivating to our engineers and our support staff who sacrifice the pleasure of living in town to work in the remote areas of our stations, some even without their families,” the company.
According to EGENCO, at Wovwe Power Station most employees live at Uliwa Trading Centre which is 21 kilometres away from the power station and leads to more operational costs.
The company is also constructing a new power station at Tedzani which will be managed by at least eight engineers hence the plan to construct new houses.
