SSKI expansion never had a clear budget

Government’s rushed tendering process for the expansion of the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (SSKI) is the major factor leading to poor management of the project and its subsequent delays.

The accounting officer in the Ministry of Infrastructure, Permanent Secretary, Dikagiso Mokotedi noted this before the ongoing Public Accounts Committee sitting on Tuesday. He explained that the project was started even before the design was complete in a rush to finish it before the 2010 Soccer World Cup.

Mokotedi, further revealed that airport project which at the time was earmarked to be refurbished and expanded from 2008 and be completed by May 2010 just before the soccer World Cup in South Africa was done in a rush leaving many loopholes in the project. He said by the time the project actually began, there was no clear budget for it hence figures kept changing and increasing.

A Chinese construction company-Sinohydro was contracted to build a state of the art terminal and expand the airport’s runway in compliance with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) standards. The intension was for the airport to accommodate more passengers especially towards the World Cup days in 2010.

To date, the completion of the project is still a misery as the initial contractor saw the ministry terminating their contract in July 2011 as there had been major faults identified in the project and failure to meet the targeted deadline despite several extensions.

By the time the contract was terminated, about 90 percent of the work was complete. “On the face value it looked like about 80 to 90 percent of the project was done but we later realized that the first phase was poorly done. On the second phase, we kept reminding the contactor to fix some things.” Mokotedi told the committee.

It has been reported that at the time of termination of the contract, Sinohydro had completed approximately 90 percent of the project and had been paid about P527 million.

PAC committee member Kentse Rammidi asked Mokotedi if terminating the contract was necessary and if it did not bring more costs to the government. “Terminating the contract was a last resort and it has its costs as we have to spend funds finding and engaging new contractors and consultants but we had to do it to ensure success of the project,” Mokotedi explained.

Asked about the rationale for paying Sinohydro close to 90 percent of their dues yet despite the contractor’s poor workmanship, Mokotedi blamed his ministry for poor and relaxed supervision on the project something, which he said the contractor took advantage of.

Currently the airport’s roof is said to be faulty and leaking and Moketedi said they only noticed this after terminating the contract with the initial contactor and it is yet to be established if it was the contractor’s fault or design fault which may mean the government will have to fork extra funds to rectify the problem.