Isaiah Morewagae
14 November 2008
The P80 million water project corruption scandal at the Department of Water Affairs is expected to attract 16 witnesses when the trial resumes, it has been announced.
Public prosecutor Dumisane Marapo made the announcement at the Village Magistrate's Court in a case that implicates former Department of Water Affairs principal water engineer, Ephraim Kelaeng.
Marapo told the court yesterday that they were ready to set trial dates. However, Kelaeng told the court that his attorney would not suggest any trial dates because they have not yet received all documents from the prosecution.
He told the court that his attorney was at the High Court in Lobatse attending to other matters but was hopeful he would be available on the next mention date to set the trial date.
Chief Magistrate Lot Moroka postponed the case to November 25 when it is expected that trial dates would be set.
At the heart of the matter is the awarding of the P80 million contract for the construction of the Maitengwe Water Supply Project. There are allegations of irregularities against the supervising engineering firm, M3 Consulting, the contractor Unik and Kelaeng.
The tender for the project was initially recommended for award to ASA Enterprises before being re-directed to Unik. The invitation for contractors to tender was published in the Government Gazette mid-2004.
The tender was awarded later the same year. Local engineering consultancy M3 was tasked with the supervision of the project.
However, questions regarding the tendering procedures have raised suspicions about favouritism and corruption.
It is alleged that when M3 Consulting realised that ASA was one of the top two companies best placed to get the job, it approached the contractor to offer a deal at the time of writing the report of recommendations for the Department of Local Government and Development, which is the client.
The consultants report suggested that ASA Enterprises was recommended for the project.
But under curious circumstances, the project was ultimately awarded to Unik, raising a furore in the industry. It has emerged that Kelaeng nullified a generally positive reference letter written for ASA by Water Affairs Department senior engineer, Joseph Mark Nyandiko.
ASA had previously worked on the Serowe Emergency Water Supply project for the Water Affairs and had asked for a reference based on their work there that was supervised by Nyandiko.
Kelaeng, who is Nyandiko's superior, wrote a reference nullifying the one written by his junior, even though he was not directly responsible for the project in question.
Conspiracy theories have been thrown about to explain this turn of events. Kelaeng's reference seems to have ultimately won the day since ASA did not get the job.
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