18 January 2008
editorial
Gaborone — The government of Botswana's now legendary poor implementation of public projects is well-documented. We would not be surprised if at least more than 50 per cent of all government projects are never completed on time, at an added cost.
This situation has not only been costly to the end beneficiaries - that is ordinary Batswana - but also the government treasury. It baffles the mind how authorities monitor the implementation of projects and the lackluster way in which it moves to remedy the wayward situations. Take, for instance, the issue of the P11 million renovation of the Francistown College of Education (FCE). As we understand it, the court ruled way back in May last year that the tender was erroneously awarded to a Chinese construction company, Unik Construction, instead of the rightful winner, Buildswana.
Without necessarily going into the merits and demerits of that ruling, it is nevertheless surprising and amazing that about eight months later since the work was halted, it has yet to be commenced. This is clearly indicative of the laissez-faire attitude towards public projects that pervades the entire government service delivery system. While officials of the ministries of works and transport and education see no urgency in resolving this matter expeditiously, undoubtedly the college authorities and the students are at the rough end. Obviously this is also going to have debilitating financial implications on the public coffers. Talk of cost recovery from Batswana school-going children pales in the face of this naked and immoral waste of public resources and expectations. One does not need to look far to see glaring evidence of waste that has come to be associated with the implementation of government projects.
The construction of the P13 million road bridge connecting Tlokweng to Gaborone was scheduled for completion by October last year. The constructors, Zebra Construction, have since postponed the completion date to February, but we doubt that even the Works andTransport Ministry believes them. A similar situation prevails on the construction of the P171 million Dibete-Mahalapye road, which is nine months late. It does not look like it will be completed by the new deadline of the end of February. Surprisingly, we know of few instances in which the defaulters are penalised according to the clearly spelt-out terms of the contract. In most cases, they are in fact rewarded, through the now customary "cost overruns". Word has it that most companies operating in Botswana have long discovered that they can abuse this cost overrun facility for excessive profits.
And the Botswana authorities are very much alive to this fact. Yet they do nothing. It is therefore not surprising that the majority of ordinary Batswana are skeptical when their country is bandied around as "the least corrupt in Africa".
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