19 Apr 2016

The chairperson of the Presidential Inspectoral Task Team, Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe has indicated his worry at the delay of the completion of the Letlhakeng village infrastructure project. Dr Kedikilwe indicated during a tour of the project that some of the factors that had been cited as reasons for delay were basic and should have been picked at the initial stage of the project.

He said issues such as the graveyards around the village, relocation of lines for power, water and telephones should have been dealt with without any challenges as the contractor knew about them even before starting the project.Dr Kedikilwe also stated that any flaws in the design of the project should have been picked before the actual implementation.

He raised his concerns after it emerged from the briefing that the contractor had requested a 12 months extension to complete the projects, citing some reasons for delays such as the exhumation and reburial of human bones as well as the relocation of lines for power, water and telephones.

It also emerged that the extension was granted without costing.However, the most burning issue that emerged at the briefing was poor working relationships between the contractor and the consultant. It was said that the contractor always complained that the consultant was not forthcoming with necessary information.

Briefing the team, the project engineer for Kweneng, Mr Juluka Zambezi explained that the relationship between the two reached a point where the consultant’s contract had to be terminated.

“At the handing over of the project by the consultant to the council, the designs were approved, only to realise that they were inadequate at the implementation stage. When the contractor went back to the consultant for more information the latter refused, accusing the former of buying time,” he said.

Questioned on how the council failed to pick the inadequacies at an earlier stage, Mr Zambezi explained that some inadequacies were difficult to pick until the implementation stage when they were put in practice.

The chairperson of the Finance and Development Planning Committee, who is also the councillor for Thamaga North, Cllr Palelo Motaosane also reiterated the issue of poor working relations by the consultant.

He said the relocation of lines was not as smooth as anticipated, saying they even had to write to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to engage their counterparts at the ministries that oversee Botswana Power Corporation, Water Utilities Corporation and Botswana Telecommunications Corporation to speed up the relocation.

Cllr Motaosane also expressed his reservations at the practice by the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board which he said prefered that a consultant that designed a project should  supervise it as it was cheaper .

He argued that such an arrangement gave room for a consultant to cover up for any inadequacies that might have occurred at the design level, saying the ideal situation would be for a different consultant to supervise projects. 

The task team, which also comprises of former cabinet ministers, Mr Gaotlhaetse Matlhabaphiri, Mr Johnie Swartz and Mr Peter Siele requested the concerned parties to give them a progress report within a week. END