DM Model Report yet to reach Parliament

The Report on the controversial Development Manager Model is yet to reach Parliament for scrutiny.The DM Model might have been a good concept, but it tseems to have been used as a looting ground of the public purse. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Noah Salakae, has revealed that the Report is ready, but he is currently fine-tuning it before he can present it to Parliament. Salakae has promised to present it to parliament within two weeks.Minister Salakae, who was responding to an enquiry from MP for TSwapong South, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang, about when the Report would reach Parliament as promised, indicated that the enquirywas genuine and he was working on finalising a few things in the report.The Speaker of Parliament, Dithapelo Keorapetse, had requested the minister to share when he will make a statement in Parliament about the Report. After assuming state power last year, the new administration of the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) made a decision to suspend most of the DM projects and subject the model to a review.At the time when the review was undertaken, the Government had spent P433, 211, 439.18 on contractors under the Development Manager model for various infrastructure projects, among them, roads, schools, and hospitals. This publication established that most of the contractors, if not all, who made the claims were not on site at the time.The DM model is characterised among contributors to the depletion of government coffers. This publication also uncovered that most of the companies cited as citizen-owned are in fact owned by foreigners, especially Chinese. There are nine Development Managers.Calls have been made for all the projects under this model to be suspended and for a commission of inquiry to be launched. The construction industry has further called for the termination of the contracts.Minister Salakae said Government’s decision to adopt the use of the DM Model to execute infrastructure projects was taken in 2022 following a benchmarking exercise, as a direct response to project implementation challenges which among others include: cost overruns, poor project quality, inferior workmanship, inadequate project management capacity and frequent project- related litigation leading to delayed project delivery and loss of opportunity for timeous service provision.He said the application of this model may have resulted in inflated project construction costs and, as a result, had to be reviewed to ensure fiscal sustainability and value chain re-distribution.Business Botswana has also issued a Position Paper on DM to the Minister of Finance, Ndaba Gaolathe.“We recommend that in the short-term, all DM Projects must be suspended while the review or audit, or commission of inquiry is executed. It is necessary for the projects to be suspended during the execution of an audit or review in order to avoid affecting the authenticity of the results or findings of any type of review that is put in place,” the Engineering and Construction Sector of Business Botswana said.They argued that while the Development Manager model can be a comprehensive approach where a single entity manages the entire development process from planning through post construction, it is best- suited for complex, large- scale projects or clients who lack in-house development expertise, as it offers integrated oversight, client advocacy, and financial and market driven project management and managing the coordination of multi- phase or mixed- use developments.“Our new Government should consider forming an Independent Commission of Inquiry urgently, that will re-examine the DM Model and give the final endorsements on the contracts’ termination recommended herein.The DM Model must be audited to identify its contract formation authenticity, its performance thus far, weaknesses, and the impacts it has had on the engineering, construction/ built environment industry sectors of Botswana.”

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DM Model Report yet to reach Parliament