14 Dec 2017

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Mr Kabelo Ebineng says they are in the process of parting ways with Bothakga Burrow, a consultant engaged on Charleshill-Ncojane 110km road project, which is behind schedule.

Mr Ebineng was addressing Ghanzi District Council meeting on December 13.

Earlier, Ghanzi District Council chairperson, Mr Galethaole Sixpence had told the meeting that the road project progress was at 41 per cent against the planned 81 per cent and said he was informed that the project had been moving at a snail’s pace, especially in the months of October and November.

In September, it was reported that the contractor was given extension of 86 days to complete the project on December 3, 2018 instead of September 2018.

Mr Ebineng said they had made recommendation to Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) seeking for termination of the consultant’s contract and to seek for appointment of a different consultant. Also, he said the concerned parties had been notified about the decision.

On the other hand, Mr Ebineng blamed administrative lapses on government side for the delay of the project and regretted that both the contractor and consultant had been working without signed contracts. They were only signed recently.

This scenario of unsigned contracts, he said, is common in other projects within his ministry.

He hinted that there was a clause in the contract that was signed very late, which  allows government to intervene in the event that the project experiences unreasonable delays.

He added that the possibilities of legal action against government could not deter them from taking proper decisions.

He argued that parting ways with the  consultant was commercially sound move, adding that parting with both of them (contractor and consultant) would  mean they should  do re-tendering of the project, which is not only expensive to the client (government ) but time consuming also.

Mr Ebineng observed that since the consultant in question participated on both consultancy and construction tenders of the project, but lost the tender for the construction, the conflicts that marred the project might be due to the fact that the consultant has conflict of interests.

“If it turned out that one entity had won both tenders, would that entity have been allowed to supervise its self,” he questioned.

He explained that construction and consultant tenders were run and evaluated parallel, hence a single entity participated in both tenders.

Previously, he said in an effort to ease delays due to the conflict of engaged companies, personnel from Department of Roads did the testing, but could not certify the work because such personnel did not register with Engineer’s board.

The permanent secretary said the contractor was keen to deliver the project within budget and to the agreed standards and had denied allegations that he did not want to be supervised.

Mr Ebineng who is worried that most of the projects funds were channeled to pay project overruns and penalties, said they were in the process of establishing project management office to ease situation of wrong tender documents and to make sure that the procurement process is done well.

In response, Grootlaagte councillor, Mr Ezekiel Kajuu said contractors and consultants had devised a means to reap government large sums of money and in most cases they collude, with government employees also playing a role in the dealings.

Mr Kajuu was of the view that government had to part ways with both the contractor and consultant, suspecting that they may have colluded. ENDS