Govt pays Synohydro to avert diplomatic row

BAME PIET
Staff Writer | Friday November 25, 2011 00:00

 

The payment is for services in the construction of Sir Seretse Khama International Airport.  Information reaching Mmegi suggests that there was general fear in the high offices that the matter did not only put the project in danger of being left incomplete for many years, but also posed a serious threat to diplomatic relations between Botswana and China. 

The latter sponsors many projects in the country, has granted Botswana soft loans to be repaid in the next five to 15 years with very low interest rates.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Carter Morupisi, confirmed that government has paid two certificates, and is processing the third one, but would not disclose the amount paid. 

'What I can confirm is that government made payments for two certificates and is processing the third one. The contractor has also acknowledged the receipt of two outstanding payments, and that the third one is being processed,' he said. 

The payment came two weeks after Sinohydro Botswana issued a press statement accusing the Botswana government of sabotaging the project through late payments and introduction of works that were not in the original plan.  The initial budget for the project was P460 million but has since skyrocketed to over P550 million.

Morupisi said there were outstanding issues regarding the Phase One project and acknowledged that the delays were a product of the bad planning for the project from both parties - both the government and the contractor.  He added that the project was fast-tracked, with no regard to the programme of works.  'The programming of works should inform the timeframe of the project.  You don't programme your work because of your wishes,' he said.

Morupisi said that the conception of the project was based on reaping something from the then anticipated movement of people during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and the project was squeezed in, as compared to the host country, which had over eight years to upgrade its infrastructure for the event.

He revealed that the government was waiting for the handover of the project some time early next year, and that is when it would conduct a full audit.  So far, he said Phase One is complete and government is withholding P12 million of the total payment for outstanding works.

He would not comment on whether or not the government was satisfied with the quality of works done so far, citing legal implications.

Meanwhile, the PS said that his team has infiltrated, and destroyed what looked like a network of engineers, contractors and consultants who colluded in making fraudulent claims from government. He revealed that they are currently making audits of both ongoing and completed projects and have found instances where some companies were overpaid for works, and have had to return the money or face blackout at Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB). 

'Some of them have returned the money, bearing in mind that they would not stand any chance for tenders at PPADB,' he said. He acknowledged that indeed there were some Department of Building and Engineering Services (DBES) officers, present and past, who were involved in fraudulent claims and some cases have been referred to the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crimes (DCEC), while others were shown the door.  Referring to the recent case of a man who  turned down P250,000 from Chinese contractors in bribes, he said that some industry players do everything in their power to bribe officers.

Morupisi was convinced that DBES was rotten, and he had to rid the department of the corrupt officers, swap officers for projects, and dissolve working units, something which has ushered in accountability. In some instances, this led to slow implementation and completion of government projects, where some officers would feed their supervisors wrong information claiming that everything was moving smoothly on site, while the reality was the opposite, he said.  This resulted in government losing millions in incomplete projects that had been abandoned by contractors. 

'Project management structures were not in place, hence there were many problems.  Some projects were done without signing of any contracts, majority of consultants were running projects without a contract,' he added.

Our efforts to get a comment from Sinohydro Botswana did not bear any fruit as the relevant officers tossed Mmegi from pillar to post at the time of going to press.