Africa-Press – Tanzania. MINISTER of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (Labour, Employment, Youths and the Persons with Disabilities), Professor Joyce Ndalichako has ordered a special audit for the fund used to renovate Yombo Vocational Rehabilitation Training Centre.
Through the Economic Recovery Plan and Response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government allocated 694 m/- to renovate the training centre in order to improve the learning environment for people with disabilities.
Minister Ndalichako issued the directives this week after inspecting the renovation of the training centre in Dar es Salaam where she expressed dissatisfaction with the cost incurred in purchasing the equipment whose quality was also questionable.
“These costs are not realistic at all… placing a wire mesh in one window cannot cost 500,000/- , this is a cost of making a complete new window,” Prof Ndalichako said.
She also said that work has also other shortcomings such as failure to observe the Bill of Quantities (BOQ), the situation that led the allocated funds to expire before the renovation work is completed.
She further stressed that the costs were unrealistic basing on the procedures of using “force account”.
“Each purchased item has a labour charge of 30 per cent, and 15 per cent contingency and 10 per cent supervision, what are these charges for on procuring extension cable,” queried Prof Ndalichako.
For his part, Ilala District Commissioner Ngw’ilabuzu Ludigija, emphasised that he will continue to monitor the project to ensure value for money is achieved.
The funds allocated for renovation of the training centre included construction of two dormitory buildings, agriculture classroom, two staff houses, dispensary building, daycare centre and electricity workshop.
The centre was established with the aim of providing vocation training and capacity building for two years in various disciplines to youth, particularly to persons with disabilities.
Usually, it enrolls students who have different kinds of disabilities that include physical impairment, blind, deaf, albinism and mental retardation.
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