19 Mar 2013

The Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Johnnie Swartz has presented a budget estimate of over P806 million for the 2013/2014 financial year.

 

Presenting the proposed budget in Parliament on Monday, Mr Swartz said of the total requested, over P510 million was for the recurrent budget while over P295 million would cover the ministry’s development budget. 

 

Outlining the budget allocations for the various departments that fall within his ministry, he said over P82 million would go to the ministry headquarters, while the departments of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) as well as that of Research, Science and Technology would get over P409 million and over P7 million respectively. The Department of Radiation Protection, the minister said, would be allocated over P10 million.

 

Outlining the progress the ministry had made in efforts to address the challenges experienced over the past years affecting the entire government infrastructure delivery system, Mr Swartz, who is also the MP for Ghanzi North, said the initiatives and measures put in place to mitigate the problem were beginning to bear fruit.

 

Citing some of the initiatives adopted, he noted that the quality audit teams put in place to inspect projects during construction and before take-over of facilities by government had resulted in drastic reductions in the number of call-outs during the defects notification periods.

 

He said the exercise had resulted in the audit teams recording 62 717 defects of varying degrees from 118 facility inspections during multiple stages of construction and during the defects liability period in the period between December 2010 and March 2013.

 

Such defects, Mr Swartz said, would have been overlooked had the quality audit teams not have been in place.

When highlighting the positive work of the teams, he said, it was estimated that the first year of inspections following the introduction of the audits saved the government over P100 million taking into consideration, the time, material and personnel used by both contractors and consultants to rectify the defects.

 

“The rigorous checks and balances which have now been put in place have also led to successful and cost effective completion of a number of projects,” he stated, citing as examples such projects as the Gaborone branch of the High Court, Court of Appeal, the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) as well as the Serowe College of Education buildings.

 

    Minister Swartz also informed the house that scrutinising claims had also borne fruit, resulting in government saving millions of Pula.

Mr Swartz said in order to strengthen the capacity to effectively deliver their mandate, they, in consultation with the Directorate of Public Service Management (DPSM) were looking at restructuring the ministry. 

 

He said the objective would be to align the departmental structures of DBES with the challenges of infrastructure delivery and their associated maintenance.

 

He said a project management office, which would have full oversight of monitoring and controlling all infrastructure projects, was being established, adding that the office would include experts in procurement, project scheduling, capital finance, legal and data base management and other construction disciplines.

 

Minister Swartz said the role of the experts would be to advise project managers, perform design audits and establish risk management plans.

 

“This is expected to improve overall project planning, coordination, operational performance and budget controls to reduce and preferably prevent project failures,” he said.

 

He further highlighted that still in efforts to improve accountability in the construction sector, a number of new and amended acts encouraging and promoting self-regulation among such professionals as architects, engineers and quantity surveyors were being finalised.

He said although the interventions on their own would not solve all the challenges of the sector, they would ultimately lead to improved service delivery to the benefit of both the government and the public.  ENDS