Works and Supply Minister Sylvia Chalikosa says there has been a lot of negligence on the maintenance of public infrastructure which is now costing government a lot of money.

And Chalikosa has invited the British business community to partner with government on the redevelopment of wasting assets under the transformation agenda.

According to a statement issued by ministry spokesperson Ndubi Mvula, Chalikosa was speaking when British High Commissioner to Zambia Nicholas Woolley, accompanied by Country Director for International Trade Vichaya Kaira, paid a courtesy call on her at the Ministry Headquarters, Tuesday.

“We are generally a support ministry to all the other ministries. And in terms of fleet management, I am sure you are aware that recently we launched our fleet management policy and we are trying to see how best we can implement it in terms of saving government monies on looking after the public vehicles. We have come up with an optimum number of vehicles for the pulling system such that not everyone is driving themselves and at the end of the day, the pool vehicles are packed. So, we would like to have as much input on how to operate that efficiently and effectively. So, the fleet management policy implementation is one of our key activities that we want to undertake almost immediately,” said Chalikosa.

Chalikosa said her ministry which was the custodian of public infrastructure and motor vehicles, had put measures in place that would enhance the prudent usage of such facilities for the benefit of the general public.

She further observed that there had been negligence on the aspect of maintenance of public infrastructure for a long time, such that it was now costing government a lot of money.

And Chalikosa bemoaned the shortage of office space and houses for public workers in excess of two million houses country wide.

She said her ministry had identified some properties that can be redeveloped using Public Private Partnership (PPP) system which enables a win-win situation.