26 Mar 2023

Minister of Transport and Public Works, Mr Eric Molale has called for private sector full participation and funding of public projects.

Mr Molale made the call when he presented the ministry’s budget proposals for the 2023/2024 financial year.

He said that following government’s rationalisation exercise, the ministry’s mandate was reviewed to cover coordination of overall policy, strategy and standards development on matters relating to transport and infrastructure development and maintenance.  

“My ministry is also responsible for housing programmes and policies that facilitate citizens to have access to housing or shelter. The ministry promotes home ownership through different housing schemes,” he said.

Therefore, he said areas of possible partnership and funding included, among others, privatisation of Air Botswana, provision of housing, outsourcing of Central Transport Organisation (CTO) fuel points, construction of toll roads and railway lines.

“Prior to formulating a strategic plan aimed at executing the ministry’s mandate, a situational analysis on project implementation was undertaken to look into challenges hindering implementation,” Mr Molale said.

He said the situational analysis report had revealed that poor contract administration was one of the primary challenges as projects were executed without contract documents.

The report, he said also revealed that there was poor supervision resulting in poor quality of the end product as well as delays in decision making which often resulted in slow moving of projects, excessive cost overruns and litigations.

Furthermore, he said inadequate implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects and unauthorised change of scope equally contributed to projects failure.

“As a consequence, a number of projects have stalled over the years,” he said, adding some of the projects that were affected by the prevailing situation included Maitengwe police station, Mandunyane-Shashemooke-Borolong-Mathangwane road, Mogoditshane-Gabane-Mmankgodi road, Thamaga-Molepolole road, Francistown-Matsiloje road and Nokaneng-Gumare road.

“In an effort to address the above, government has accordingly adopted the Development Manager (DM) model as the lead method of improving project delivery. The DM does the full scope of Engineering, Procurement, Construction and Management (EPCM) services associated with facilities and infrastructure projects within the built environment,” he said.

The method, he explained, was efficient and cushioned government from financial risks associated with lapses in project implementation and delivery, including delays and cost overruns commonly associated with litigation and insider trading.  

He added that such would further strengthen government’s ability to manage projects, thereby creating more jobs.

Further, he told Parliament that government would continue to maintain, reconstruct as well as expand road networks across the country in order to preserve the road assets and improve connectivity and traffic flow.

Again, he said the ministry would, in the next financial year, focus on projects that would, among others, facilitate de-congestion of some primary roads by providing alternative routes that by-passed major urban centres, facilitated connections between production areas and market centres and connected major population centres.

“Private sector participation in public infrastructure projects including private sector financing for self-liquidating projects such as road tolls is encouraged,” he said.

He added that increasing road network of national interest would also be prioritised while government would also continue to provide dignified livelihoods through provision of affordable housing.

Regarding maintenance of roads, Mr Molale said the targeted projects included rehabilitating the 40km Mmadinare-Robelela road and the 2km Mabeleapudi access road.

“Other maintenance projects include asphalt overlay of Machaneng-Ramokgonami turnoff (60km) and resealing of Mopipi-Rakops road (50km),” said Minister Molale.

He said the high cost associated with road maintenance to improve the condition of the Public Highway Network (PHN) had compelled government to look into alternative technologies to improve road construction and maintenance.

“Government has recently adopted three technologies with the expectation that it will in most cases reduce the cost of construction and maintenance of roads countrywide overtime. The three technologies will be piloted on five roads being Makalamabedi-Motopi (30km), Dibete-Mokgenene-Otse (87km), Borobadilepe-Hebron-Mokatako Road (43km), Modipane-Mabalane Road (24km) and Thamaga-Kubung (22km),” he said.

In relation to housing delivery, Mr Molale said his was ministry was looking into the possibility of consolidating coordination of affordable housing programmes in the country so that the limited resources that government provided could do more.

“These programmes are SHHA Turnkey, SHHA Home Improvement, Destitute Housing, Presidential Housing Appeal, the Integrated Poverty Alleviation Scheme (IPAHS) and the Kgalagadi Sand Building Block (KSBB),” he said.

Therefore, Mr Molale said the proposed budget for the 2023/2024 financial year under the recurrent and development allocations comprised over P5.178 billion. He said over P2 billion would cover the ministry’s recurrent budget while P3.170 billion would be used under the development budget.

He said the development funds would be used for computerisation projects, refurbishment of some government buildings, promoting home ownership through the Self Help Housing Scheme, roads, rail and airport infrastructure.

He indicated that over P2.432 billion from the development budget would be allocated for roads infrastructure, over P74.3 million for building infrastructure while P69 million would be  used for social and affordable housing. Ends