11 Jul 2019

The Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation, Mr Kitso Mokaila says government is working on a collaborative effort to improve on planning, pricing and execution as well as timely delivery of projects. Mr Mokaila told Parliament on behalf of Minister of Transport and Communications, Ms Dorcas Makgato that the transport ministry has engaged with stakeholders in the construction industry in efforts to mitigate adversities around projects, particularly those that had been abandoned by contractors.

Mr Mokaila said a total of seven projects, which included drainage works and resealing projects, were abandoned by contractors in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years. Mr Mokaila indicated that four of such projects were abandoned in the 2017/18 financial year in respect of road-related water drainage while three dealt with road construction or maintenance. He explained projects were abandoned because of various reasons which included among others, contractors’ cash flow, poor project implementation, underpricing of works and liquidation of contractors.

The minister noted that he could not guarantee that such adversities would not re-occur, but the ministry was taking immediate steps to address the problem. “Based on the corrective steps which are underway, I expect in the future to have fewer such cases starting in financial year 2020-2021 if not sooner,” he said. Member of Parliament for Nkange, Mr Edwin Batshu had asked the minister to state the number of projects supervised by the ministry that were abandoned in the 2017/18 and 2018/19 financial years. Mr Batshu also wanted to know why such projects were abandoned and what the ministry was doing to avoid such happening in the future. ENDS