05 May 2019

Some road engineers at Central District Council have been suspended pending investigations into their suspicious professional misconduct with regards to the paved internal roads in the village.

Making the revelations at Member of Parliament Mr Tshekedi Khama’s  kgotla meeting at Mannathoko kgotla recently, deputy chairperson of Serowe Administrative Authority Mr Atamelang Thaga said that the engineers at CDC were supposed to be supervising the internal roads that were delivered to the Serowe community by then Vice President Mr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The roads were constructed at a cost of P104 million from interlocking bricks at some identified roads within Serowe to improve ease of access as well as ease movement.

He said that the  roads were supervised by a single engineer saying that supervision of as many roads as there are in Serowe was overwhelming for one engineer to satisfy, more especially that some contractors tend to do shoddy jobs.

The first batch of paved internal roads, delivered by then VP Mr Masisi, was a package that was outside the P7 million thresholds that SAA was not allowed to go above. 

As such construction of the roads could not be supervised by the subordinate council, Mr Thaga explained to residents of Serokolwane Ward.

The roads, which the residents expressed concerns about were the ones leading to Serowe Sports Complex, another going into Swaneng Hill School, another going into Water Utilities Corporation offices and the road that leads to Mannathoko Primary School.

Construction in many of the above-mentioned roads has not kick-started, hence the residents expressed concerns at the sluggishness of projects implementation.

Although Mr Thaga explained that councillors had requested that the roads project be divided among small contractors for ease of delivery, councillors were informed that the project came with ready made packages.

The major challenge had been that the contractor of the roads in question had sought increment of funds upon realising that he under quoted by P2 million. 

However, the councillors had rejected outright his plea to have the funds increased, Mr Thaga has revealed.

In fact, Mr Thaga informed residents that as councillors they had mooted cancellation of the tender, but were hamstrung by a court ruling that supported the contractor’s claim to the tender after defeating the council. ENDS