11 Mar 2014

Minister of Infrastructure Science and Technology says work at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport terminal building is scheduled to commence first week of May 2014 and completed mid February 2015.

Minister Swartz explained that tender for the completion contract of the terminal building was closed at PPADB on September 2013.

He said the tender was crafted in two stages; technical and financial and that there were four contractors who were prequalified to tender for works but only three submitted their bids on the closing date.

MR Swartz further said the technical bids were evaluated by DBES and only two tenders proceeded to the next stage of the opening of financial bids. He said the financial bids were opened at PPADB on November 2013, and unfortunately the tenders were way beyond pre-tender budget of P118 960 485.69.

Mr Swartz added that the tenders ranged between P181 735 386.27 and P231 148 174.36 and the construction period ranged from eight to 12 months.

He said his ministry then requested for approval from PPADB to seek clarification from the two tenders which was given on December 16, 2013 at the time that contractors were closing for the Christmas break. He explained that the clarification exercise commenced on January 14 and was concluded on January 22, 2014.

He said the report was submitted to MIST on January 17, 2014 and are still perusing the report with the hope of submitting their evaluation report to PPADB on March 2014.

MP for Lobatse, Mr Nehemiah Modubule had wanted the Minister to inform Parliament on the status of SSKIA and to further state how much was used to engage the new contractor and when the airport will be completed. ENDS