30 May 2018

Procuring entities have been accused of publishing tenders which end up being cancelled or being delayed.

Speaking at a meeting ofthe Botswana Civil Works Contractors Association (BCWCA) its president Mr Oduetse Tautona cited the Roads Department which he said continued to float more tenders without any projects being awarded.

He also said there was also a tendency to request extension of the validity period.

Mr Tautona said the practice forced the evaluation period to run beyond normal times thereby attracting associated cost overruns.

Contractors heard that the association intended proposing that either procuring entities form dedicated teams or engage private consultants to help realize the implementation of their procurement plans.

He said the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) recently introduced a system where work codes were merged.

BCWCA, he said, had since identified ambiguities in the exercise and was engaging authorities to address the issues.

“It should be brought to your attention that PPADB has hinted a procedure of de-registering and re-registering Code-03, Sub code 04-Road Surfacing,” he said.

Mr Tautona said they intercepted the move and requested a review of the same.

This followed a meeting with PPADB where proposed re-registration requirements were that individual companies should have ownership of plant and equipment as road surfacing is a specialised work requiring specialised equipment.

He said PPADB and procuring entities must accept plant leasing because plant hire and road construction were two different disciplines.

Contractors said the formulation of tenders sidelined Batswana because citizens were not given any right over it for them to ultimately reach the standards of other countries.

They said Batswana were educated and had all the skills and as such deserved to be awarded tenders.

They said citizen contractors should be sub-contracting foreigners and not the other way round. ENDS