17 Jun 2019

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Transport and Communications, Mr Kabelo Ebineng, has confirmed that P1 billion Road Fuel Levy is available for procurement of roads construction equipment. 

Responding to Kweneng District councillors during a recent meeting, he said about 20 000 km roads across the country and 6 000km inherited from district councils had to be attended to. 

He assured councillors that 20 per cent of the fuel levy was committed to the local government ministry for use in roads projects.

“Funds are available, but we are failing to act on implementations as planned because of greedy and selfishness evident within the construction industry due to impediments resulting from unfair dealings between contractors, roads officials and consultants leading to escalation of prices that could have been avoided,” he said.  

Mr Ebineng also stated that, “we also have problem with the issue of bonding, where some individual contractors connive with officials for evil intentions to deceive the government by producing fake bonds for the release of mobilisation fees” .

He called on councillors to help expose individuals involved in shady deals that affected projects progression.

Mr Ebineng acknowledged that in some instances, they failed Batswana by late delivery of projects due to unforeseen circumstances.  

The agreement was also reached as per councillors’ requests and the permanent secretary promised to disburse funds to district councils so as to buy for example, blades for graders and diesel, to maintain gravel roads within the jurisdiction of central government roads department.

“I am ready to ensure the immediate release of funds for district councils to help rescue the situation when processes to procure relevant machinery were underway,” he said.  

Mr Ebineng also briefed councillors about the tender of Mogoditshane, Gabane Mmankgodi road projects that had been tendered for and evaluated. 

The councillors had demanded explanations on the deplorable roads status in district, adding that they were not convinced by answers provided by officials in the district. ends