LAMISE TOLL GATE SHARING DEAL IS A NON-STARTER

Dear Editor, I AM totally opposed to the Government decision to give Lamise Trading a 17year contract in which the company will share revenue 50-50. Let the Government buy the technology and give it to young Zambian graduates to operate, we do not need foreigners for this job.

It is all the more objectionable that this was an unsolicited proposal from Lamise which has not been put to public test through an open tender.

If Government is so determined to give away revenue let it do so in an open and transparent, manner by inviting all those with similar capacity to provide their offers. Single sourcing is a very dangerous corruption ridden route.

This 17-year contract does not make any sense at all.

The Government through the Road Development Agency (RDA) has already established toll gates in most of the busy traffic routes from which Government is earning a very sizeable income which will go towards repaying development loans on infrastructure and ensure continued maintenance of the roads. What technology will Lamise bring to Zambia which the RDA cannot source?

My own evaluation is that technocrats who advised Government on this deal had their own deals in mind because it defies logic to enter into such a long term contract involving an ever growing scale of revenue.

In the envisaged 10 years of operation, traffic will increase exponentially by huge mathematical proportions beyond the investment which an outsider will spend on commencement.

In other words the tolled roads may remain constant or increase marginally while the traffic on them will grow, demanding higher maintenance costs which the Government will have to meet while Lamise and its partners will simply cream off the super revenue.

This will be a loss of revenue to the Zambian people and Government and with each year the loss will increase.

Simple mathematical scheming and modelling shows that the 17-year 50-50 sharing is a raw deal for the Government which owns the roads and infrastructure. Let RDA simply upgrade its computers and incorporate all the features that Lamise intended to buy from the Austrian company.

It will be a very sad day when Government which is facing so many revenue pressures will sign this agreement that will give away money on a silver platter.