06 Mar 2014

Government is the largest consumer of construction services and it is affected when the industry does not work well or when it mutates into claims and disputes.

The deputy Attorney General responsible for civil disivion, Mr Morulanyi Chamme, said at a one-day seminar for Dispute Resolution Board Foundation (DRBF) in Gaborone that infrastructure development had been phenomenal as measured by comparing expenditure levels between 2001 and 2007.

Mr Chamme said the growth put pressure on the provision of professional services and this might have provided fertile ground for disputes to occur. He noted, however, that the growth scaled down as a result of the recession that started in 2008.

He said disputes were bound to occur and they appeared to be endemic to the construction industry, where government was the largest recipient of such services.

Nonetheless, he said, the disputes could be solved through either the formal judicial system or through alternative dispute resolution methods such as dispute boards.

He said the Attorney General’s Chambers would welcome any effort that sought to avoid, mitigate and solve dispute, adding that they were besieged by disputes even during the period of slow down in the industry.

“Without giving specific numbers, I can observe that claims are mounting and amounts in dispute are growing,” he said. “At times you get confronted by claims which are larger than the original contract sum.”

Mr Chamme said the Attorney General’s Chambers did not have sufficient capacity to handle litigation from the construction industry, arising from project implementation. This, he explained, was because of lack of specialist skills to handle the interface between engineering and law.

He said he hoped that the seminar, which brought together construction professionals, arbitrators, and construction law practitioners, would come up with a wider adoption of boards in Botswana’s construction contract, especially the substantial ones.

He said the formation of the Botswana chapter of the Dispute Board Foundation was welcome as it would promote the credibility of the construction industry.

The five-hour seminar, which was also attended by dispute resolution experts from three continents, provided participants with an opportunity to update their knowledge of dispute boards and their successful use within the construction industry.

It was also of interest to those whose work involved procurement, contract documentation, and resolution of disputes arising from construction work. ENDS