Contractors accuse FCC of corruption
Pini Bothoko | Wednesday February 10, 2016 17:03
City mayor, Sylvia Muzila, had summoned contractors to update them on the implementation of the Economic Stimulus Package (ESP) projects in Francistown and encourage them to be ready to reap from the programme.
However, the contractors turned matters around and said tenders from the local authority were not always awarded with merit and transparency. They accused council officers of not following the right procedures during the tendering process.
The contractors said some of their peers were always favoured, even though they fell short of the procurement requirements.
Cornelius Budani of Budani Construction accused FCC of corruption, saying often tenders were awarded to contractors who were not even part of the bidding process and who did not meet the stated requirements.
“This council is corrupt. Tenders are always won by the same people. It appears as if we are failing here whilst we are not given a chance. We are simply disadvantaged by our council,” said Budani.
Another contractor, Robert Maphosa, said was worrying that the council often warned contractors against corruption “when they themselves are corrupt”.
“FCC projects are failing due to corruption as tenders are awarded to contractors who do not qualify for those projects and who end up failing to deliver accordingly,” he said.
“Look at the ongoing paving of the Central Business District. It is not up to standard and I suspect this is because the council is corruptly awarding tenders.”
Maphosa accused the council of failing to monitor its projects, pointing out that if their projects were properly supervised they would always be up to standard.
Responding to the contractors, city clerk Leboile Israel said they could not rule out the possibility that some of his juniors may be involved in corrupt tendencies.
He said contractors could also be fuelling the practice by bribing council officials.
“I urge you to report corruption especially when you encounter a situation where you are being asked for a bribe by officers.
This worries me because you might as well try to bribe them during the tendering process. I assure you that if indeed there is corruption we will uproot it completely because it reflects badly on our council,” said Israel.
For her part, Muzila pleaded with the contractors to report any corruption they might encounter in the council, saying the local authority did not want to be labelled as “corrupt”.