Report examines troubled construction sector

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Monday December 6, 2010 00:00

 

A recently published draft report titled: Improve the Performance of the Construction Industry in Botswana, indicates that the sector's contribution to GDP has declined from 5.2 percent in 2000 to 4.7 percent in 2009.

Similarly, the report - which was undertaken by the University of Botswana's Office of Research and Development - says the employment ratio of the sector has dropped from 10.3 percent in 2000 to 7.0 percent in 2009.

In a presentation to the national construction conference, a Senior Lecturer in Project Management in the Department of Civil Engineering said the industry had witnessed a series of poor delivery over the last decade. 

Joe Ssegawa, who took part in the study, told the BOCCIM-sponsored conference at Boipuso Hall in Gaborone last Thursday: 'The industry needs to transform in order to produce a desirable situation under which projects are delivered in a professional and acceptable manner.'

The report, which resulted from a BOCCIM-sponsored study in 2008 and a consultation process that began in June this year and ended last month, cites failure to complete projects within their time and cost limits, poor occupational health and safety procedures, lack of sustainability and government's inability to plan its projects well among problems that have become typical of the construction industry.

'When considering projects completed without re-tendering, only 35 percent and 15 percent had been completed within cost and time (respectively) and the rest incurred overruns,' Segawa said.

The report proposes the formation of an umbrella organisation tentatively named the Botswana Construction Industry Authority to address leadership and regulation towards transforming the construction industry.

It notes that the status quo lacks organisation and coordination, which hampers performance and meaningful social and economic development in the sector.

Speaking at the same conference, BOCCIM's Head of Construction, Jubilee Makgosi, said the emerging trend of Government borrowing money from external sources and allowing financiers to dictate procurement terms for projects was disturbing.

'A case in point is the recently advertised Pandamatenga Farms infrastructure which is being procured under ADB rules and we seem to be allowing them to dictate procurement,' Makgosi said.

This trend is notable in parastatals, especially the Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC), where money - mainly from China - was coming with conditions that Chinese firms do the work.

However, Makgosi said, a benchmarking exercise in South Africa had shown that this did not have to be the case and that funds secured should actually be disbursed in accordance with local procurement policies.