05 Nov 2013

The coordinator of Ipelegeng programme in the North West District, Mr Goitsemodimo Mosimane has revealed that maintenance projects are going at a slow pace due to quality of the work produced by the employed artisans.

Presenting a report to the councillors during a sub-council meeting, he said the other set back was that there were many projects but, little manpower, adding that the overall implementation rate stood at 54 per cent. He said the programme had about 199 projects for the year 2013/14 plus nine of the spill over projects making a total of 208 projects. In addition, Ipelegeng was implementing 19 projects for the maintenance of tribal administrative offices and staff houses.

Regarding spill over projects, councillors learnt that the most outstanding project was the Kareng RADS hostels but, the coordinator appreciated that the construction of the dining hall had started and it was anticipated that it will be complete by the 27th January 2014.

Mr Mosimane also noted that the completion phase of the remaining works in girls and boys hostels had commenced and was expected to be complete by the 30th November 2013.

He mentioned some of the problems encountered during implementation such as ungazetted plots were not given to environmental office by the landboard, lack of support from user departments, which have a tendency of bringing forth projects and from there they become reluctant to share their scope of work and the refusal of residents to vacate houses during maintenance.

Other problems include, continuous break down of vehicles due to terrains such as the Makakung/Kareng road, continuous breakdown of vehicles after they had been attended by local dealerships. Mr Mosimane also highlighted that the unreliability of artisans was also a concern as mostly the ones hired through affirmative action were disappointing as they tended to abscond from sitess.

He also said absconding by Ipelegeng beneficiaries from work sites also affect progress of the projects. He mentioned that his office has received nine queries from people complaining about food rations and assaults, six of the complaints were from Maun and three were from other areas.

To fast track the implementation, Mr Mosimane recommended that the maintenance department should take the responsibility if identifying a contractor, provide the scope of work while his office would purchase and deliver materials to sites and then supervision would be done jointly, together with payments.

He said that should apply mostly where there five or more houses to be maintained in one school but, where there is only one or two houses, Ipelegeng will identify the contractor/artisan but still, the department has to bring forth the scope of work.

He also recommended that the programme should have at least two technical officers and that the continuous retrenchment of Ipelegeng staff should be kept minimal as that affects the continuity of the programme. Mr Mosimane stated that the recruitment of an accountant who will focus solely on Ipelegeng projects is crucial. ENDS