COPPERBELT UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

NAME: FRANCIS MALAMA

SIN: 17112880
PROGRAME: Bsc in BUSINESS AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
COURSE: PROCUREMENT AND BIDDING
COURSE CODE: BSP 382 ASSIGNMENT ONE
DUE DATE: 22/01/20
Construction is a $1.7 trillion industry worldwide, amounting to between 5 and 7 percent of GDP
in most countries. It accounts for a significant part of global gross capital formation, a little under
one third. In Zambia construction sector is led by the demand by the mining industry, shopping
mall, infrastructure development, residential building and offices. According to the Zambia
development Agency (ZDA), building and construction has been the largest industrial sector
comprising 27.5% of the GDP with at least a growth rate of 12% in between 2016 and 2017, and
recording a US $3.3 billion of foreign direct investment. As such, fast forward to the present
moment there are many Zambian construction companies including professional services like
contractors and architects as well as building equipment and supplies [ CITATION Con19 \l
1033 ]. The sector’s role in the economic development is beyond the shadow of doubt,
considering the fact that housing, hospitals, schools, roads, utility networks and bridges are all
built assets.

Because of corruption’s central in the development, corruption in the sector can be especially
harmful. In particular corruption that leads to poor quality of construction or which supports an
environment of poor projects selection and insufficient projects maintenance can significantly
reduce the economic return to investment and carry high human costs in terms of injuries and
deaths. And while there is undoubted role for the government in the sector both a consumer and
the regulator, there is also a serious concern with the capacity of many government to adequately
fulfill these roles. This paper discusses what we know about the nature and extent of corruption
in the construction industry also most importantly the impact of shoddy projects to the economy
and some of the approaches to governance and project design which may limit these undesired
shoddy projects.
More often than not, players in the construction industry have been criticized for shoddy works,
be it in road sector or building industry at large. Indeed some of works Zambians have seen and
witnessed leave so much to be desired. One wonders whether professional input was sought such
as architectural, structural, electrical, civil, mechanical etc. That is required to deliver quality
constructions projects. One would want to ask what is quality ? “International standards define
quality as a degree of excellence in competitive sense such as reliability serviceability
maintainability or indeed aesthetic” [ CITATION Tec16 \l 1033 ]. Oftentimes quality is looked
at in terms of an excellent product or services that fulfils or exceed our needs.
All over the world no country has ever developed without embarking on a number of projects.
This simply means that for every country to achieve its economic transformation, the need to
undertake the various project that can lead to the ultimate goal of its economic growth can never
be overemphasized. However, in an effort to attain the economic advancement through the
running of numerous projects, every country risks itself of being encountering the issues of
shoddy works delivered by incompetence constructors. Time and again, shoddy works have had
posed a huge impact on the economy which negatively affect the growth of any country’s
economy of which Zambia is not an exception.
Further, one of the negative impact imposed by the undesired shoddy works to the Zambia’s
economy is poor service delivery to the Zambian people. As service delivery accounts to every
country’s GDP, therefore, poor service delivery do nothing to country’s economy as people are
poorly served. Poor service delivery simply mean citizen are less productive as such their
contributions to the nation’s GDP is not up to their full capacity. Poor service delivery to the
citizenly tend to make them become less productive, unpatriotic and also to have less trust on the
part of government.
Indeed shoddy works hinders Zambia’s economic development as time and again Zambian
government has lost colossal sum of money on redoing or repairing these purported shoddy
projects delivered by inexperience and incompetence contractor as it has been witnessed in the
recent past. For instance, in the end year of 2016 people of southern and Lusaka province had
suffered a setback following the Batoka – Maamba road in Southern Province and Luangwa
Bridge to Feira road in Lusaka which were prematurely damaged as result of purportedly
reported mountain movements and being washed away by the rains. Contrary to what was
reported on the media all these damages that were experienced in Southern part of Zambia, if a
careful, thoroughly investigation and assessment was conducted to assess what could literally
lead to the undesired damaged road, it would clearly showed that shoddy works were indeed one
of the major root cause of the reported damaged. Following the incident reported on the media in
the late 2016 pertaining to the witnessed damaged road, it was then reported in the first quarter of
2017 that “Parliament GOVERNMENT had released over k1 million to the Road Development
Agency (RDA) in Choma for the repair of the Batoka – Maamba road (D775) in Southern
Province and damage section of the Luangwa Bridge to Feira road in Lusaka Province. Minister
of Housing and Infrastructure Development Ronald Chitotela said that k1, 084, 000 had been
released so as to facilitate the movement of people and goods across the Luangwa river in the
case of D145 and movement between Batoka and Maamba road” [ CITATION Zam171 \l
1033 ]. It is undisputed fact that shoddy works indeed have negatively impacted Zambia’s
economy in a sense that Zambian government have for long time been spending huge sum of
money on redoing and repairing these failed projects, when logically that same huge amount of
kwacha could be channeled to other important sectors so as to enhance service delivery such as
health, agriculture and education just to mention a few. Clearly, because of continued shoddy
works Zambia has remained stagnant as far as economic emancipation is concerned.
Furthermore, shoddy projects are a danger to the citizenly and also poses a huge threat to
economic emancipation. More often than not it has left the innocent people with injuries, resulted
in fatal accidents, generally, occupational health and safety illness are as a result of shoddy
works. In the recent years Zambia have had experienced several incidents that have led to the
loss of many lives, damaged properties that lead to wasteful of national resources, and also
economic movement to a standstill.
However, for Zambian government to put an end to these shoddy works and indeed be able to
achieve the value for money, there is need to take the following into consideration. As we always
say, the absence of qualified professional being engaged in the design and implementation
process, nonconformance to required standards specifications, construction pilferage and
corruption could lead to short cuts resulting in poor workmanship. The importance of quality
control on construction and quality management is required throughout all phases of the project,
i.e. conceptual planning, feasibility study, design, procurement, construction, commissioning
operation and maintenance, hence, all these ought to be taken care of if at all the value for money
is to be attained.
In conclusion, government are and will remain the major regulator of infrastructure services and
consumer of construction services. Reducing unnecessary activity of government in the sector
may play a role in controlling corruption. However, improving governance will remain central to
an effort to reduce the development impact of corruption in the construction. Whatever our
uncertainties regarding the most effective tools to reduce the development impact of corruption
in the sector, it is clear there is a considerable unfinished agenda, then. An activities that work to
limit the harmful outcomes of corruption, in terms of shoddy construction or the commissioning
of low return investment may go a long way towards reducing the harm done by the failure in
governance.

REFERENCE
Construction Review Online , 2019. Top construction companies in zambia. [Online]
Available at:http://www.constructionreviewonline.com/2018/07/top-constructionies-in-zambia/
[Accessed 19 January 2020].
Technical Director, J.-A., 2016. Quality and construction industry. [Online]
Available at:http://www.timesofzambia.com.zm/quality-and-construction-industry/
[Accessed 18 January 2020].
Zambia daily mail , February 15, 2017. Luangwa-Feira road disaster.
Zambian daily mail , February 25, 2017 . Batoka-Maamba road and luangwa bridge repair.