Bill To Regulate Construction Industry On Cards

 

 

PLAYERS in the construction industry are engaging government to bring about a law that would regulate the sector.
Both the Construction Industry Federation of Zimbabwe (CIFoZ) and the Zimbabwe Building Contractors’ Association (ZBCA), confirmed to the Financial Gazette’s Property that they have been working together to push for a Bill that would result in the regulation of the construction sector.

 

CIFoZ chief executive officer, Martin Chingaira, said after wide consultations, CIFoZ had together with the ZBCA, submitted a draft Bill to the Ministry of Public Works and National Housing’s legal department.
He said the Bill had, to his knowledge, been passed on to the Attorney General’s office for further scrutiny and refinement.

 

Chingaira said the proposed law would ensure that the highest standards are upheld in the industry and fly-by-night contractors are weeded out. He said the law would also provide guidelines on such matters as who can go into the construction sector, tendering procedures, procurement guidelines, terms under which foreign contractors can operate in the country among other things.

 

ZBCA president, Obert Sibanda, said: The idea behind the Bill is that we are looking at a situation where the industry is not regulated just like all others. We need to have in place something that is mandatory, Sibanda said.
What we currently have is the NEC (National Employment Council) which to some extent regulate in some areas and we also have our own associations which are primarily lobby organisations and their decisions are not mandatory, so we are engaging other stakeholders like members of the (Parliamentary) Portfolio Committees, especially those that deal with infrastructure development so that we come up with a law regulating the industry.

 


Sibanda added: This Bill is about regulating the industry because as contractors, we currently have no law regulating what goes on in the industry¦ at the moment anyone can come into the industry and do whatever they want and leave, so this law that we are working on will make sure that the construction industry is regulated just like any other industries.

 

Other players in Zimbabwe’s built environment such as architects, engineers and estate agents, among others, are regulated by strict Acts of Parliament that seek to ensure that practitioners do not act or behave in a way detrimental to their clients and other stakeholders. Fingaz