Embu county puts cowboy contractors on notice

The County Government of Embu has established a task force to identify contractors that are not genuine, commonly referred to as briefcase or cowboy contractors.

Embu Governor Martin Wambora said his government has involved the Chamber of Commerce Embu Branch to identify the fake contractors and give recommendations.

He stated that the role of the chamber of commerce would be to work with procurement departments to scrutinise and identify contractors who will be blacklisted from getting tenders with the county government.

“The task force has one month to come up with a raft of measures to identify contractors who only exist on paper and lack physical addresses. The Chamber will work towards blacklisting such contractors from getting tenders,” he said.

On his part, Embu County Chamber of Commerce Chair Samuel Wainaina Kanyi said they have united with the county government to weed out such constructors, whom he said are spoiling the reputation of genuine business owners.

“Some of the constructors are not known in the business circles and are using county officers to seek for kickbacks, others are only playing middlemen where they win the tenders to later sell the works to the third parties,” he said.

By Treeza Awuor