Ndamu Sandu
20 June 2009
POOR supervision and the acute brain drain have delayed the completion of major government projects by the more than 14 years, a new audit report released by the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (OCAG) has revealed.
The audit, which covered construction projects for the period 2003 to 2008, said delays in the completion of construction projects ranged from three to 14 years a move that has seen costs going through the roof.
At least 11 projects were reviewed and they include the Criminal Investigation Department; Harare Central Registry; Interpol Sub-Regional Office; Harare Central Hospital, Marondera Central Hospital; and Meteorological Office.
Progress on the construction of Tafara, Dzivarasekwa, Mutoko, Murehwa and Hwedza District Offices; Budiriro 1&2 High Schools; and Mazowe Cell Block was also assessed.
"The delays in supervision were partly caused by acute shortage of architects who left government service for greener pastures," the report said. "Those still in employment could not cope with the ever increasing number of projects."
According to the report, at the time of the audit there was one architect for 83 projects against the international standard of one architect to five projects. It is a requirement that supervision of projects be carried out by architects and the technical team.
"However, I noted that the department has been hard hit by high staff turnover as technical expertise is highly sought after in neighbouring countries," said Comptroller and Auditor General Mildred Chiri. She said that while there was a high turnover of staff, construction projects were increasing.
Chiri said the efficiency and effectiveness of the Public Works Department had been compromised due to work overload on the part of its architects.
"I am concerned that the quality of work by the department's architects could be compromised which would negatively affect the quality of the construction works," the report said. "On the other hand I was concerned that projects costs continue to increase due to delays by the PWD to timeously carry out project supervision, site visits and meetings because of shortage of architects."
The OCAG reviewed 11 project files to obtain information on construction progress of contracted and in house projects in the respective ministries. Work on the CID block started in September 1999 and was scheduled to be completed by September 2001.
As of November last year, 83% of the project had been completed. The purpose of the CID project was to provide adequate office accommodation for CID staff and for storage of security information.
The OCAG said at the time of the audit, there was no evidence of adequate supervision of the project being undertaken on a monthly basis and the technical team did not attend site meetings held on April 25, June 28 and December 6, 2005, the report said.
During the period under review, the contractor was not carrying out construction work but he charged Ps &Gs (Preliminaries and Generals) of Z$11 727 000 (being Z$643 000 per month for crane hire and Z$660 000 for forklift hire) as per rates.
"The Ps & Gs were an additional cost to the project which had to be met from state funds," the report said.
The Harare Central Hospital project started in October 2003 and its intended date of completion was May 2005.
As of November last year, only 35% of the project had been completed.
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