12 Aug 2024

The Ministry of Transport and Public Works, has since 2020, awarded projects to three Chinese-owned companies at the total value of P972 724 924.13.

Responding to a question in Parliament recently, transport and public works minister, Honourable Eric Molale said the projects comprised one road and two building construction.

Minister Molale said the projects also consisted of the construction of the office building for the Ministry of Finance in Gaborone awarded to Colic Construction in 2022 at P141 993 216.14.

He said the construction of the new police station in Letlhakane was awarded to Heli Construction and Engineering/Mido Construction Joint venture in 2021 at P155 000 766. 65.

He explained that the project was a 50/50 joint venture between a non-citizen company and a 100 per cent citizen-owned company.

He said the third project was the construction of Mmandunyane-Shashemooke-Borolong-Chadibe-Mathangwane road including access roads to Natale and Makobo awarded to Unik Construction (Pty) Ltd in June 2023 at the tune of P675 730 941. 34.

Regarding the 30 per cent sub-contracting policy for Batswana-owned companies, Minister Molale noted that only one citizen-owned company had been sub-contracted mainly brickwork in that project at a cost of P33 303 187. 93, representing 30.84 per cent for the office building for the Ministry of Finance.

He said the project commenced in August 2023 and was currently at 57 per cent against 66 per cent completion.

For the joint venture between Heli and Mido, he indicated that the sub-contracting was not a requirement as it already included the 50 per cent for the citizen-owned company, adding the project commenced in August 2022 and was currently at 96 per cent against 100 per cent completion.

Mr Molale further pointed out that the contractor for Mandunyane-Mathangwane road project was yet to engage citizen sub-constructors as required by the Citizen Economic Empowerment policy.

He said the total value and percentage of sub-contracted works were still to be determined since the project had just commenced and sub-contracting was ongoing.

“Currently it is difficult to elaborate on the reasons for any variations that may occur between the contracted sum and end sum paid for in those projects.

The reason being that two of these projects are still in the early stages of implementation and there are no variations that have arisen so far on the works,” he said.

On the Letlhakane Police Station project, Mr Molale said though it was 96 per cent complete, there were no variations to date, adding however, that he could not rule out the possibility of variations occurring.

Minister Molale further stated that the ministry was scheduled to start implementing a Project Governance Framework which defined processes and procedures for managing various aspects of projects,

including Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, which were expected to be established in the next financial year under Project Governance Framework structure.

Jwaneng/Mabutsane MP, Mr Mephato Reatile had asked the minister to provide an update on the number of projects awarded to Chinese-owned companies and the total value of such projects under since 2020.

Mr Reatile also wanted to know if there was any data or records available regarding the extent to which the 30 per cent sub-contracting policy for Batswana-owned companies had been fulfilled in those projects.

This included the reasons for any variations that may occur between the contracted sum and the end sum paid for in those projects and if there were any specific examples or statistics available regarding the variations.

He further asked the minister, to provide a timeline or a plan as to when the missing data on end sums paid for those projects would be available and accessible, considering difficulties in retrieving information due to COVID-19 related office closures. ENDS