Energy Ministry to annul the contract of contractors not completing projects on time

– Ramesh Lamsal

The government has made preparations to cancel the contract to the construction entrepreneurs not completing the projects within deadline.

The government is taking this measure of stern action in the context of the contractors not fulfilling their responsibilities in relation to development construction works and of even the project chiefs not found carrying out their works.

The negligence of the construction entrepreneurs, delay in the contract process and other bottlenecks have been resulting in the extension of the project period by many years. Aware of this, the government has reached to the conclusion that this tendency has to be checked.

In this connection, the Ministry has prepared to take action against the contractors of the sick and overly delayed projects related to the departments, company and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) among the bodies under it.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Barshaman Pun said the status of some projects being implemented by the Ministry was still complicated and it is as though these projects would be hardly completed on time. "Cognisant of this situation, the Ministry is preparing to adopt astringent policy," he added.

Although the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers has released statistics showing there has been a significant decrease in the percentage of contracts of projects that are non-performing and sick in the last two years, there is still complications in the context of some projects.

According to Minister Pun, the tendency to acquire contracts taking advantage of the political instability and transition in the past and not completing the works on time was the hurdle to development. He argued that there has been some improvement in this tendency after the formation of the present government, but still full improvement in this tendency will take time, warranting adoption of draconian policy by the Ministry.

He further claimed that the number of problematic contracts has notably gone down in the two years period since he assumed the post, adding that the Ministry has been constantly monitoring the work progress of the remaining problematic projects as well. In this connection, he said, arrangements have been made requiring the offices which award the contracts to submit a monthly progress report on the contracted projects to the Ministry.

Stating that unlike in the past there was no political instability and transition, and weak government and a weak system now, Minister Pun reiterated the tendency to delay the projects works under any pretext would not be condoned.

In course of discussing with officials of the Ministry’s subordinate bodies, Minister Pun also directed the subordinate bodies to annul the contract with the construction company not working as per the agreement.

"Carry out regular monitoring and facilitate if there are any genuine obstacles. But do not extend the contract term time and again when the work is not done," he instructed the subordinate bodies’ officials.

As he said, many contracts of NEA and irrigation were in problematic status at the time of his assumption of the Ministry. However, the number of such contracts has been reduced to a great extent in two years through relentless efforts.

It was reported in the discussion organised by Minister Pun that the number of problematic contracts has decreased from 235 to 130 in two years. Among these also, work is in progress in 80 per cent of the projects.

Similarly, the number of problematic contracts of the NEA has gone down from 90 to 39 in two years’ time.

Present in the discussions were responsible officials of the Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry, the Water and Energy Commission, NEA, Department of Irrigation and the Electricity Development Company.