Search for SSKI Airport constructor still on

Sharon Mathala | Wednesday March 12, 2014 15:38

 

The Minister of Infrastructure, Science and Technology Johnnie Swartz revealed this in Parliament.  Lobatse Member of Parliament (MP) Nehemiah Modubule had asked the minister on the status of the SSKIA and how much was used to engage the new contractor as well as the estimated completion date.

Swartz said that the tender was crafted in two stages; the technical and financial stages and that there were four contractors who were pre-qualified to tender.

He said that the financial bids were opened at the Public Procurement and Assets Disposal Board (PPADB) on November 6, 2013.

“Unfortunately the tenders were beyond our pre-tender budget of P118,960,485.69,” said Swartz. He further said that his ministry requested approval from the PPADB to seek clarification from the two tenders, which were given on December 16, 2013. At the time the contractors were closing for the Christmas break.”

Swartz further said that the clarification exercise for the tenders commenced on January 14, 2014 and was concluded on January 22, this year and that, the report was submitted to his ministry on February 17, 2014. 

“We are still pursuing the report and hope to submit our evaluation report to PPADB on March 20, 2014, and should everything go as planned, we are hoping to get the contractor on site by first week of May 2014,” said Swartz.

He further said that his ministry projects the earliest completion date of mid February 2015. Government, two years ago after a series of delays, eventually terminated the SSKIA expansion contract, which was initially awarded to Sino Hydro. The Chinese company had won the tender, which was standing at P550 million.

The Sino Hydro contract was terminated after their initial completion date for the terminal expansion was set for May 2010 but the company later deferred the completion date to end of June 2012, which also failed.

Swartz last year at a press briefing mentioned that the ministry was dissatisfied with the contractor’s overall performance.

The completed terminal was expected to have additional hangar plots, be able to process around 1,000 passengers per hour and also be able to accommodate bigger aircraft with an extended runway of up to a kilometre.