02 Sep 2015

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Mr Dikagiso Mokotedi has said the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport is one of the project which has taken too long to be completed by his ministry.

Giving an overview of the project at the hand over ceremony of the SSKIA to the Ministry of Transport yesterday (September 1), Mr Mokotedi said the airport took seven years to be completed as it commenced in 2008 and was due for completion in 2010.

He said the project was one of those fast tracked which was to be completed before the 2010 World Cup that was hosted by South Africa and the project was awarded at a contract value of P433.2 million  and works commenced on site on June 10, 2008 with a completion date of May 11 2010.

Mr Mokotedi said the contractor could not complete the project on time as he only managed to hand over Phase I works of the project in May 2010.  But still then, the project had notable defects and it was not out of choice that they accepted this state of the works as this was to facilitate the contractor to commence the demolition of the old terminal building which occupied the space where the footprint of Phase II was going to be build.

He said the other reason was that the airport had to remain operational during the duration of the construction of the entire project to facilitate air travel in and outside the city, but the contractor was however, required to rectify phase I defects within 12 months following its takeover, which was in line with the provisions of the contract.

He said in May 2011, his ministry was disappointed as the contractor had not yet completed defects identified in phase I and the ministry continued to impress on him to complete these works, while he kept on revising the dates by which these works were to be completed and in each case, he failed to meet these deadlines.

Mr Mokotedi said after two years of unfulfilled promises the contractor had still not yet completed the phase I defects and other works in phase II.  In June 2012 the ministry notified the contractor about its intention to terminate the contract on the basis of non-performance.

He said the contract was finally terminated in July 2012 and a total amount of P522.7 million  had already been paid to the contractor and the contractor was aggrieved and dissatisfied by the decision to terminate and as a result a dispute was declared and the matter was later referred to the Dispute adjudication Board (DAB), where it was determined that the ministry was justified in terminating the contract and that all due contractual processes leading to termination had been followed.

The permanent secretary said the contractor was not happy with the ruling of DAB and decided to refer the matter to the International Chamber of Commerce  in London for arbitration and the case is still on-going and is expected to be heard in 2016.

He said the ministry then considered alternative types of contracts for the completion of the project and the contract was finally awarded to Stefannuti Stocks Botswana at a contract sum of P142.6 million in May 2014 and a completion date of March 15, 2015 was agreed and the contractor completed the project on time and within budget. Ends