SSKIA expansion thrown in limbo

Brian Benza
Staff Writer | Friday November 4, 2011 00:00

 

Expansion of the terminal building should have been completed by May last year. Instead, the project is still ongoing with galloping cost overruns currently at P115 million.

In a notice published this week, PPABD announced it had declined DBES' request to increase the contract amount from P433 million to P547 million for the airport expansion project that is being undertaken by Chinese company, Sinohydro Botswana. DBES is the employer for the contract on behalf of the government.

Throwing the project further into disarray, Sinodyro this week raised concerns that payment delays, constant variations to original designs and additional works were to blame for the project's delivery and escalating costs.

Sinohydro says that after accepting the contract under a fast track programme with a tight schedule, the project has been marred by constant delayed payment for the work done. This in turn has affected the company's ability to procure materials and pay subcontractors, thus impacting on   agreed delivery timeframes. Infact, payment has been a problem both in terms of agreed amounts and times right from the start of the project in 2008, the Chinese contractor says. The Business manager of Sinohydro Botswana, Chaofeng Ren, told Mmegi in an interview:

'Up to now, 32 interim payment certificates have been issued, 21 of which were not paid on time while 11 had the agreed payment amount reduced. From the beginning of this year, none of eight payments due to the company was paid on time. The longest delay lasted for 164 days.

'We are owed in excess of P20 million and have not received our last three payments. The money is an indispensable resource for purchasing other resources for the project. These erratic payments have affected the original project schedule adversely.' Sinohydro also blames the project's delivery delay and cost overruns on numerous changes to original designs, saying the deviations have meant deferment of completion schedules for a project on a fast track programme.

'We will try our best to complete it,' Ren said. 'Hopefully, payments will be made on time and there will no longer be design changes or additional works.' The Chinese contractor also blames additional works for the cost overruns. According to the contract, unit rates of works have been fixed while quantities of works can be adjusted.

'Therefore, the contract price will be changed if the quantities of works change or new works are introduced into the contract, Sinohydro says in a statement.

'Large numbers of changes and additional works have been introduced into the original scope of the contract. For instance, the brand new storm water drainage was constructed across the old car park, which was never contemplated in the tender.

'As the contractor, our obligation is to construct what the client wants. We cannot contain ourselves within the original works scope just because we know what the client wants will cost more money, as the client is considered to have known the increase in cost if he wants more work done.' A questionnaire sent to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Science and Technology - which is responsible for the project - had not been responded to at the time of going to press.