Stalemate over Morupule Bs US$800m expansion goes to OP
Wednesday, May 22, 2019
Two Asian mega-corps – Marubeni from Japan and Posco from South Korea – won the tender to expand Morupule B by 300MW in 2015 and were due to have begun work in January 2017 on a 42-month contract.
While Morupule B currently has four units capable of producing 600MW, it has never produced that much due to frequent breakdowns and is due to undergo intensive repairs over the next four years. The Asian joint venture meanwhile has still not kicked off due to a dispute over a government support agreement required for the two firms to reach financial close.
When the State cannot rely on its own machinery to pursue suspected wrongdoing, repairing that machinery must become a national priority.The establishment of a Special Investigations and Asset Recovery Task Force may help government respond to the immediate challenge. However, Botswana cannot afford to leave the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) and the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) struggling whilst building...