$33.7M FTJ UNIVERSITY SAGA RAGES

By NATION REPORTER

THE US$33 million paid to the Frederick Jacob Titus Chiluba (FJT) University in Luapula Province was an advance payment for mobilisation and design.

The funds were not meant for the actual construction which was expected to cost US$225 million.

According to article 4.2 of the contract seen by the Daily Nation, the $33 million, stated that “The employer shall make an advance payment as an interest free loan for mobilisation and design”

The designing aspect encompassed architectural designs, with engineering for structural, electrical, and mechanical with the Quantity Surveyor costing the entire project while the mobilisation involved for the contractor to move on site, set up temporal site offices, canteen toilets, store rooms, boundary fences, boreholes, water tanks, etc.

The project was to be financed by the Export Bank of China while Zambia was obliged to pay the 15 percent counter-part funding.  This was after the fourth iteration approval meant to rescope the project.

In 2020 however due to the debt burden and debt distress the country was facing, the university project suffered a setback when Government abandoned all projects that were below 80 percent completion.

Further all piped funding and credits to Zambia were cancelled.

The FTJ Chiluba University and Itumpa University in Northern Province still awaits the government pursuit of the export credit loan to complete the projects.

The contractor’s mobilisation assets have remained on site although doors, windows, pumps and other utilities have been vandalised or stolen.

The contract also clearly stipulated that the advance payment shall be repaid through proportional deductions in interim payments.

“Deductions shall be made at the amortisation rate stated in the particular conditions which shall be applied to the amount otherwise due until such a time the advance payment has been paid,” it said.

The construction of the FJT University has raised dust with stakeholders claiming that some individuals in the previous government pocketed the money after the contractor vanished on site.

But New Congress Party President Peter Chanda said that it is wrong for the new dawn administration to heap the blame on the Patriotic Front because this was a government project.

Mr Chanda said it was important to look at the terms of reference of the contract and that if there were any irregularities then the contractor was supposed to be taken to task. “This issue is simple.  There is no need for finger pointing but just look at the terms of reference which clearly points out the mode of payment and other modalities involved in the contract.”