CONTRACTORS who were given tenders to supply electricity in rural areas by the Rural Electricity Agency (REA), have been sitting in the dark after the government said it was not satisfied with the speed and conduct of the implementation of the work.

In addition, the government has given seven days from now to contractors who hesitate to submit their work plan to get rid of REA and that after a month the government will review them to check their performance.

It has also said that after two months from now, it will start using a new tender procedure for contractors and those who have not completed the work of the tender by less than 60 percent, will not be given another tender, but also those who have performed well will be given priority in other tenders.

This was stated today in Dar es Salaa by the Minister of Energy January Makamba, while talking to the contractors and clearly explaining to them that the government is not satisfied with the speed of their work and asking them to evaluate themselves, otherwise strict measures will be taken against them.

"Let me tell the government that we are not satisfied with the speed of your implementation of the projects given to you, some of you have abandoned the site (project areas) and the funds given to you for that work have been diverted to your other things," he said and added:

"The electricity poles have been neglected in the villages until they are broken, if you do more we will file a case against you and you will be imprisoned, we have nothing left to say or joke about, and those who disturb us we will remove them we will send them to the Contractors Registration Board (CRB), remove them and I will manage this myself, the government cannot be blamed by the people for your negligence , the money we have given them, the work is not done," emphasized January.