21 Aug 2014

The Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Peter Siele has warned that evaluators will have to account how the contractor for the Letlhakeng internal roads project was awarded the tender when he has no experienced personnel on site.

He said enough and experienced personnel were some of the requirements contractors should have before being awarded tenders.

Mr Siele’s comments came after it emerged during a briefing on the project on August 19 in Letlhakeng that the contractor was struggling because of lack of key personnel for the project.

Mr Siele also expressed concern that a lot of things seemed not to be going well at the project especially on the contractor’s side. He said this raised the likelihood of the project failing to be completed on schedule, unless work could be accelerated.

He however, cautioned that all should be done to ensure that it was completed within budget and that should there be any cost overruns, they should be justifiable and accounted for before the contractor was paid.

Mr Siele also advised the contractor to fully explain the delays in the relocation of services and property by the Botswana Power Corporation and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation. 

He said this will enable him to take the issue with the relevant ministers.   Mr Siele’s comments came after the project consultant, Mr Manzi Chikaha informed him that the project has been delayed by 10 weeks due to various reasons such as the recruitment of key personnel, especially land surveyors. 

He said this then led to the delay at basic stages of construction such as setting out of works. “The contractor initially engaged inexperienced surveyors who took a considerable time to set out the works but without success,” he said.

He also cited as other reasons for delay, the late acquisition of a burrow pit, and delay in relocation of properties, especially graves and plot boundaries. Activities that are currently being carried out include among others, provision of by-passes and relocation and lowering of pipes.

The P162 million project will be constructed over a period of 30 months, and is scheduled for completion in April 2016. The project involves the construction of 39 selected internal roads to bitumen standard and associated storm water drainage.

The roads have been categorised into three; access, tertiary and secondary roads and all total 29.15 km. ENDS