GCC behind in projects, fears losing money

Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday February 23, 2018 18:15

 

GCC started constituency projects last month, but they are supposed to have been finished by April.

This week, GCC councillors at their special meeting expressed concern over the delay of projects in their constituencies. In other constituencies, projects are complete while in Gaborone they are extremely behind.

Councillors’ fears are that the money might be returned to government before the projects are completed or even started. Gaborone has five constituencies, which are Gaborone North, Gaborone South, Gaborone Central, Gaborone Bonnigton North and Bonnington South.

Each constituency has been given P10 million to work on some of the small projects, which constituents need most done.

“I do take the blame that the projects had delayed, but there were reasons. The constituencies took long to agree on what kind of projects and unnecessary debates also contributed. By most probability, the current financial year constituency project will be started and completed and it does not take long unless if the contractor has performance issues. And of course we will also push through procurement of material,” Gaborone town clerk, Mpho Mathe said.

He added that if they do not speed up the projects, they might end up consuming their money for the recurrent budget in 2018-2019.

He continued: “The ones for next year that were not considered today are not likely to be problematic as well because this time around, unlike the current fiscal year, we started the tendering process even before final approval of funding. We only focus on where there are changes between the proposal and funding.”

However, Bontleng ward councillor, Olebogeng Kemelo said: “The issue of delays for constituency projects needs to be addressed urgently because our voters think that we are (not) pushing council on the matter. Again, we need to know what will happen if theCouncil is forced (to) return the money to government when projects are not complete.”

Projects on the recurrent budget that have delays but with tenders awarded and are about to start include paving, buildings, Gaborone Central Clinic and installation of some street lights, which will cost P15 million.

The town clerk is expected to brief Council in a few days on all council projects that have been delayed and the timeframe as to when they would be complete.

This week, councillors blamed the town clerk for all incomplete projects and postponed the approval of their GCC budget for the 2018-2019 financial year.