01 Apr 2024

Besides a minimum of 12 months liability period, depending on the value and complexity of a project, the Development Manager (DM) would be liable to maintain any structural defects that occur eight years after completion of the project.

Addressing Letlhakeng District Development Committee in Letlhakeng recently, a member of Catalyst Project Team (CPT) Economist, Mr Gaolekwe Tlogelang said the provision of latent defects liability period of eight years would come handy; ensuring that durable projects were delivered.

He said such provision would avert shoddy workmanship and would save government money. “The DMs are not agents of the government, we are paying them and we expect them to deliver according to design specifications,” he said.

Mr Tlogelang said under the DM model there would be no price variations saying guaranteed contracted price would reign supreme. He said if there were disputes from either party, the project would not be stopped, saying the new Public Procurement Act allowed for such.

His counterpart, CPT- business strategist, Mr Molefi Keaja said the new act prescribed that dispute resolution should be initiated at the appointed tribunal before heading to courts of law.

He said in the event that the dispute reached courts and the aggrieved party won the case, compensation would be done.

He also said only Botswana arbitration act and rules would apply under this DM model.

He said CPT at ministry of transport and public with an establishment of 15 professionals: headed by a coordinator, they will closely work with ministries, ‘because at the end of the day the project remains responsibility of the concerned ministry in terms of ownership and design briefs’.

District professional staff, he said, would be an extension of national CPT, for the purposes of monitoring and overseeing projects.

Envisaged benefits from this model, he said included expedited delivery of projects in terms of budget, time, and specification, enhanced engagements of citizens and also incubating them.

Other benefits, he said, were fair distribution of projects to contractors and proper packaging of projects from technical and financial point as DM would be allocated according to regions or districts.

Inherent risks, which Mr Keaja said CPT would manage were unethical conduct and corruption issues that might arise through professional misconduct.

He said so far, only two projects would be implemented through the Development Manager Model in Letlhakeng District.  The two are: upgrading of Takatokwane clinic to maternity and construction of land board offices, while upgrading of Letlhakeng clinic to primary hospital was still under review.

He clarified that even though Letlhakeng-Kaudwane 95 km road was included in the Ministry of Transport and Public Works budget proposal for 2024/2025, no decision had been made that it would be implemented through a DM model.

He said planned projects but not included in the DM model would be implemented the conventional way.

He said 145 projects had been identified country wide to be implemented through the DM model.

Under this model, he said, there was no option for failure and therefore implored all stakeholders to apply themselves to their best ability. He said his team was available for further engagement. Ends