Africa-Press – Botswana. Government has adopted a Development Model (DM) as a result of challenges experienced over time in terms of project implementation, scoping and cost overruns among others.
This was said by Mr Molefi Keaja, a business strategist under Catalyst Project Team in the Ministry of Transport and Communications when addressing Boteti District Development Committee in Letlhakane on Tuesday.Mr Keaja said because of the challenges, there have been issues of loss of public funds, slow economic growth and chances of employment creation for citizens were also compromised. Projects he said were implemented without readiness and assessment as well as lack of proper maintenance of existing facilities.
He said people charged with the responsibility of project planning, scheduling and estimating were not necessarily skilled in the areas. Mr Keaja said the model sought to change the way things had been done in terms of approach to project implementation. Projects for Boteti District under Development Model include; construction of Letlhakane hospital, 25 kilometres internal roads network and storm water drainage, new secondary school in Letlhakan. “We are going to do things differently in terms of project implementation, issues of readiness are going to be key to avoid challenges of idling time whereby contractors had to claim fees for idling time of equipment,” said Mr Keaja said.
He said all necessary pre-requisites and pre-contract services would be addressed before the contractor occupied site. The Development Manager he said they would manage infrastructure development projects from inception, adding that government had also approved establishment of a Catalyst Project Team to facilitate the DM. Mr Keaja stated that the DM and Catalyst Project Team had expertise to plan, design, cost, procure, manage and supervise contractors, noting that DM would assume construction related risks.
The DM, he said was obliged to abide by the citizen economic empowerment policies, economic inclusion act and public procurement act. Mr Keaja said the DM should also ensure engagement of citizen owned companies, capacity building and skills transfer to citizen owned companies, ensure employment of locals, procure locally manufacture products as well as ensure there was a market data for local products.
He indicated that the envisaged benefits and risks of Development Model expedited delivery of projects, on time and according to specifications. Mr Keaja added that it would also lead to enhanced engagement of citizen contractors, fair distribution of works to contractors, as well as proper packaging of projects, both technically and financially.
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