03 Jun 2021

 The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications, Works Transport and Technology has urged government to crack the whip on accounting officers who fail to execute their mandate.  

It also called  for serious action, including blacklisting, against local companies which failed to deliver projects on time and budget.

 Speaking after a briefing on the delayed Maitengwe police station project Wednesday, committee chairperson, Mr Aubrey Lesaso accused some officers of dereliction of duty.

Negligence led to project delays and Batswana not deriving the intended benefits at the intended time from such projects, he said. 

Mr Lesaso pointed out that delays cost government a lot of money due to cost overruns.

Citing the Maitengwe project, he said residents had hoped that the police station would have helped in reducing the escalating cross border crime. 

Earlier, project manager Mr Zambia Champo, who said he was based in Gaborone and visited monthly when possible, had revealed that the P74 875 933 project started in October 2017 with a completion date of May 2019. 

Initially, the project moved at a commendable pace but started stalling in 2018, he said. 

Mr Champo said  called to account, the  contractor gave assurances that the project would get back on track, which did not materialise. 

 He explained that more challenges, including the loss of the project’s resident engineer over payment disagreements, ensued.

 As a remedy, arrangements were made for the Clerk of Works to monitor the project, said Mr Champo. 

He revealed that so far the contractor had been paid over P64 million for the project which was currently at 91 per cent complete. 

Mr Champo said the contractor had requested another three-month extension from last month to August following the first which lapsed on May 7.

The extension had not been granted, he said. 

Commenting, Mr Lesaso decried remote supervision of government projects.

 “Supervision of a project of such magnitude could not be supervised by a clerk of work, with just a bricklaying qualification, which does not even match the scope of the works,” he said.ends