BHC millions go down the drain
Oarabile Mosikare | Friday March 6, 2015 15:05
The houses, which were constructed in October 2008 and completed in November 2010, cost P204 million. Due to these structural defects, hundreds of teachers in Francistown have been left without institutional houses.
BHC corporate communications manager, Tebogo Mmokele revealed that the Ministry of Education, Skills Development was offered 88 out of these 545 houses. “Out of these 31 houses that were constructed in the black cotton soil area were rejected by Ministry of Infrastructure Science and Technology (MIST) team due to signs of structural defects which were observed,” he said.
Mmokele further said the tender for construction of the 545 houses was awarded to Delmar Investments, through the normal BHC tender procedure.
He further said since the law required that they conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study before embarking on any construction project, Gab-U Consultancy had carried out the study.
“In addition, BHC and the contractor jointly appointed a third party, Consulting Geotech-Engineering firm, to conduct an assessment and make a remedial recommendation. We are currently studying the report,” he said.
He added that BHC and the contractor were still conducting investigations as to what could have gone wrong, and it was only after that when they could be apportioned, and remedial work carried out.
“The defects will be attended to in the 2015/16 financial year and the estimated period to attend to the defective houses is 6 to 9 months,” he said.