National Road Fund Agency (NRFA) Director/CEO Eng. Wallece Mumba has called for a change of mindset among engineers in local authorities in the supervision of road projects. Speaking during the close of the five-day capacity building workshop held for local authority engineers in Southern and Western province, Eng. Mumba said it was time for engineers to re-establish public confidence.
He said the NRFA placed a high premium on value for money which, would only be achieved with the right skills and a reminder of technical issues taken into consideration, such as project management, contract management, and material testing.
He said there was a need to emphasize quality, price, and the right delivery time of road projects.“This interaction brings one other thing together, which is developing the right mindset. What we are dealing with are public funds, when people are paying at the toll gate, this is part of the money that comes into providing some of the infrastructure services and with the right mindset knowing that we are dealing with public funds, we have to ensure that we do the right thing,” he said.”It is about time we re-establish public confidence.
If the works arent done right, why should we certify them? We must have the right mindset as we supervise these projects .”And giving a vote of thanks Eng. Ricky Siamatu from Kazungula Council thanked the NRFA for facilitating the training program.
“It is one of its kind, and it is one that we engineers have been yearning to have. It was especially enlightening with the practicals we had to do for material testing. We will apply all those technics.”
The participants also received certificates based on their performance during the material testing practicals.