Opposition Leader Don Polye has slammed the National Central Supplier and Tenders board for awarding K80.28 million contract to a company for the construction of a four-lane road in NCD.
Polye said China Harbour Engineering company had done defective and substandard work on the phase one construction of the Lae Tidal Basin.
He was commenting on a media report which cited CHEC likely to be engaged in the Waigani to Badihagwa-Hanuabada road project.
He added that the wharf work cost the taxpayers’ nearly K1 billion.
Polye doubted whether CSTB had done due diligence and strict assessment in the screening process, saying if not, CSTB is incompetent.
The company, he said, also was awarded a number of multi-million projects in the country- a four-lane road in Western Highlands and Nine-Mile to Gerehu road at a tune of K122 million among others.
“Why have almost all the major contracts been given to only a few preferred companies, while the government is continuously neglecting our SMEs which have the capacity and good track record?
He said the manner in which the contract was handled, had raised a lot of issues which need to be answered.
Meanwhile, a lot of residents at the Gerehu suburb in the nation’s capital are also complaining about a section of the road at the Casio roundabout that has been dug up again for the third time due to lack of proper engineering.
The road was built by Phoenix Construction Ltd, another Chinese company.