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Tanroads eases road for local contractors
2007-08-29 09:21:14
By Musita John
Firms and agencies supplying machinery and equipment to contractors will soon have their services paid for faster than is the case until now, the Tanzania Roads Agency (TANROADS) said yesterday.
According to TANROADS Director of Planning Jason Rwiza, measures to ensure that the new modalities succeed will include paying the suppliers directly through deductions using payment certificates resulting from plant and equipment hire agreements between the suppliers and contractors.
The director, who was speaking exclusively to The Guardian in Dar es Salaam, said the new modality would serve as a facility that would enable the suppliers to easily collect their payments from contractors hiring their equipment.
“Our interest has always been to help plant and equipment providers grow as well as to enable them to bring in sufficient equipment.
There have been times when contractors defaulted on making timely payments for hired equipment, while sometimes payment was not effected at all,` he noted, adding: `We have seen the problem and have decided to step in so that we retain the suppliers` services.
Rwiza explained that they had confirmed that problems in accessing plant and equipment locally make many Tanzanian contractors fail to complete their various pieces of work within the stipulated contract periods, `which is often very costly`.
Under the planned arrangements, any successful tenderer wishing to hire plant and or equipment will have to sign a hire agreement with plant and equipment providers or sign a `Form of Authorisation by Contractor` with the TANROADS Regional Manager.
That would allow TANROADS to effect the required payments directly to the suppliers.
Rwiza called on plant and equipment suppliers to enter into formal agreements with contractors to make it possible for his agency to effect payments directly to them.
Commenting on the envisaged changes, Contractors Registration Board Registrar Boniface Muhegi said the new facility would enable plant and equipment providers to bring in enough equipment `assured that they will be paid promptly for their hire`.
He expressed hope that the facility would also encourage healthy competition in the construction sector, adding: `It promises to be an excellent idea. We want contractors to be creditworthy institutions or agencies of integrity that really adhere to the ethics guiding their profession and observe the principles of corporate governance.`
The CRB chief urged employers and financial institutions to have faith in, and extend maximum support to, TANROADS’ plans of the new system, which he saw scaling down the number and seriousness of points of friction between contractors and suppliers.
`It is very normal practice for employers to guarantee their workers who are in need of bank loans. In similar manner, our board has always been close to TANROADS to make sure plant and equipment suppliers are paid without needless delay for their services,` Muhegi observed further.
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