Contractors in the spot for delayed government projects

The government has put on notice contractors who have undertaken several projects but ended up delaying their completion.

To address this, the State has promised to introduce a limit on the number of projects one contractor can undertake in the wake of tens of stalled projects across the country.

The most affected are the Economic Stimulus Programme (ESP) markets across the country, where some of the projects have stalled after some of the contractors were overwhelmed.

This emerged when the Deputy Chief of Staff Eliud Owalo visited Gilgil which is one of the constituencies affected by delayed completion of the markets.  

Owalo announced that the government was responding to a disturbing trend where contractors were overstretching themselves by taking on more projects than they could handle.

“Some of these contractors have taken over several projects and they do not have the capacity thus delaying completion of these projects and we shall be forced to blacklist them,” he said.

According to Owalo, some contractors, after successfully securing multiple contracts, failed to deliver within the stipulated timelines despite having received milestone-based payments.

He noted that this inefficiency not only undermined the government's commitment to timely service delivery but also violated public trust.

“We are not going to allow a situation where the government has made payments and yet the contractors cannot meet their obligations in terms of delivery within the stipulated timelines,” he said.

He warned contractors who consistently underperformed or failed to deliver on time that they faced blacklisting and disqualification from future government projects.

“Those types of contractors will be blacklisted and will be barred from taking up government projects in the future,” Owalo warned.

On his part, Naivasha Deputy County Commissioner Josiah Odongo called on members of the public to support on-going government projects.

He identified the Naivasha Special Economic Zone (SEZ) as one of the game changers in Nakuru County as it had the potential of creating hundreds of jobs.

Odongo noted that communities around the SEZ had been engaged before the project kicked off, and they fully backed the industrial park.

“Tens of local youths are employed in some of the upcoming companies around the Special Economic Zone, and the number will rise in the coming months,” he said.