Contractors rehabilitating schools

The Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Water Resources (MOPHRH), will this month close contracts with 25 companies for the construction and rehabilitation of water supply and sanitation systems in 667 secondary schools and 15 teacher training institutes across the country, plus another 12 to inspect the works. The works will be financed with 3.5 billion meticais from the state budget, National Director of Water and Sanitation Nilton Trindade said in Maputo yesterday (21-07).

Trindade told journalists that the government had decided on a direct award to speed up the rehabilitation of schools, noting that this method was permitted under the Regulation for the Contraction and Supply of Services and Goods to the State in emergency circumstances. In order to ensure efficiency and speed in the execution of the works, and taking into account the urgency and the dispersion of schools across the country, the government had divided the work into 25 lots consisting of an average of 30 schools, Trindade said. Each lot would be tackled by a single construction company, and 12 inspection companies would cover two lots each.

“Although we opted for the direct award modality, we will try to safeguard transparency in the hiring of construction and inspection companies. Instead of requesting a proposal from one company, we request proposals from 13 companies for each lot. This will allow us to be more competitive, meet technical requirements and achieve more realistic prices and prevent us poor quality work. We will ensure transparency by publishing the list of companies selected after the award,” Trindade added.

Trindade said that, to allow the transparent participation of Mozambican companies, 43 construction companies and 44 inspection companies with experience of work in the education sector and in the water supply and sanitation subsector were invited to tender. This, Trindade underlined, would ultimately ensure 85% local involvement. “We are predicting that we will have all the contracts signed this July. Execution of works should take between 60 and 90 days, starting from the award date,” Trindade said. At the same press conference, the National Director of School Infrastructures and Equipment at the Ministry of Education and Human Development, Filipe Nguenha, said that an evaluation of resuming classes would take place within three months of the completion of works.

Nguenha said the refurbishment of 667 secondary schools and 15 teacher training institutions was part of the first phase of the improvement of educational establishments in the country. The second phase, he said, would consist of the requalification of water supply and sanitation in primary schools. The Ministry of Education was already conducting a survey on the establishments and costs in this regard, and expected to release the results next week, he said. (E. CHILENGUE)