01 Mar 2015

Jwaneng mayor, Mr Tsietsi Oodira-Kwenje has expressed displeasure at the way projects are delayed and thereby accruing extra costs.

Addressing a full council meeting recently, the mayor said it was evident that these delays had nothing to do with the council as a client but rather the delays were coming from the contractors’ side.

“For the past few years, we have developed a tendency of not delivering projects on time and on budget.  Since I have had the opportunity of deliberating with the administrative wing of council on the issue, I took it upon myself to have a forum with the contractors on February 18 to hear their side of the matter,” he said.

He noted that some of the challenges that surfaced at the forum included late delivery of material and delayed connection of utilities.  He said even though the council leadership had resolved to engage utility providers on the issue, contractors still had an obligation to do their best in ensuring timely completion of projects.

He said they had since encouraged them to double their efforts to fulfill their contractual obligations with the council. For her part, specially elected councillor, Ms Olga Ditsie shared the same sentiments, adding that project delays had a negative impact on the development of the township. 

She said it was disappointing that even though Batswana were always calling for local empowerment, some of the citizen owned companies were now thwarting the council’s efforts of citizen empowerment.

She said companies had the mandate of completing projects on time and within budget and therefore should perform as expected.  “I urge the council leadership to take this matter seriously because in the long run this can have a negative effect on citizen empowerment efforts,” she said.

Responding to the councillors’ concerns, the Jwaneng Town clerk, Mr Dick Kalantle noted that even though his council subscribed to the idea of empowering citizen owned companies, it should not come at the expense of developments.

He said the performance of citizen companies in the township was disappointing because most of the time the council was not getting value for money.

Mr Kalantle noted that as project managers, they had been ensuring that the environment was conducive for the contractors to do their work efficiently, but the results had been appalling.

“We continue to pledge to pay material suppliers directly and have also negotiated a discount with one of the suppliers, who has acceded to our request and delivered.

 The discounted money goes to the contractor, but despite all these efforts, we still experience the same problem,” he said. Mr Kalantle noted that even though they have authority to cancel failing contracts, they had been hoping for improvement. 

He said the council would continue to do its best to address the issue in which way possible. ENDS