While motorists continue to endure potholes on the Blantyre-Lilongwe section of the M1, a blame game has intensified between Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority (PPDA) and Roads Authority (RA) on who is causing delays.

This time around, PPDA has disputed claims that it was responsible for the delays to rehabilitate the deteriorating road, stating that RA did not follow procedures.

The PPDA response follows a meeting between RA and the Parliamentary Committee on Commissions and Statutory Corporations in Lilongwe where RA executives claimed they have been waiting for PPDA approval since August last year to award contracts for rehabilitation works after Roads Fund Administration provided K6 billion from tollgate collections.

It emerged that the contract in question was in reference to the rehabilitation of Dedza Loop Road in Dedza District under contract reference RA/MAI/2022-23/T/REH/CR/DZT/DZ/27 and rehabilitation of selected sections of the M1 between Zalewa in Neno and Chingeni in Ntcheu.

Kujaliwa: Submission was of poor quality

But in an interview yesterday, PPDA public relations manager Kate Kujaliwa said RA did not follow procedures and was advised on what to do.

She said: “The submission was of poor quality as the initial contract award decision by RA did not follow the evaluation criteria predefined in the bidding document which was issued to bidders on this procurement.

“A ‘No objection’ was withheld because RA did not apply the 20 percent margin of preference for Indigenous Black Malawians as stipulated on Circular No.  PPDA/01/22 issued by PPDA on 1st July 2019 on application of section 44 (10) of the PPD Act 2017.”

Kujaliwa said RA was advised to review its contract award decision taking into account the ranking of the bidders upon application of the 20 percent margin of preference for Indigenous Black Malawians.

She said RA was further advised that since the bidding document issued for the procurement did not provide a restriction on the number of lots on which a bidder could be awarded contracts, determination of the maximum number of lots could only be based on the bidder’s technical and financial capacity.

Kujaliwa said: “Roads Authority made a resubmission on 24th January 2023 after working on the issues raised by PPDA. No Objection was eventually granted on 15th March 2023.

She said PPDA was, thus, surprised by the accusations RA made and has since formally raised its concern on the same.

RA acting chief executive officer Engineer Dimu yesterday did not respond to our questionnaire nor did he pick up our call on this matter.

The committee had summoned RA to a hearing of the M1’s poor state despite funds for maintenance being collected through toll gates at Kalinyeke in Dedza and Chingeni in Ntcheu.

Committee vice-chairperson Patrick Mpinganjira-Matola said their inquiry established that the RFA is sitting on K6 billion.

But in his response during the meeting, Dimu said the authority had conducted all the contract awarding processes and was awaiting approval from other agencies.

The Blantyre-Lilongwe road project’s scope of work includes sectional rehabilitation budgeted at K4 billion, K500 million for Ntcheu shoulder widening and a Dedza loop road at K1 billion.

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