R98.1 million spent on 28 kilometres of road which is only 44% complete
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) is set to investigate a R150.4 million contract for special maintenance of 28 kilometres of road between Setlagole and Delareyville.
This was revealed by Freddy Sonakile, a member of the North West Provincial Legislature, who has been following the issue.
Sonakile raised concerns about the procurement and implementation of this project by the North West Department of Public Works and Roads.
He said that the procurement and implementation happened when the department was under Section 100(1)(b) national administration.
“Section 100 intervention was imposed to rescue the province from administrative collapse, strengthen financial controls and restore proper governance,” he said.
He said that the effectiveness of the Section 100 intervention must also be examined in light of the SIU investigation into the road maintenance contract.
However, it is not only the investigation into fraud, corruption and irregular expenditure which raises concerns. The work done also raised the alarm.
Parliamentary records indicate that the R150.4 million project commenced in March 2022 with an original contract period of 17 months.
By September 2024, the project had already spent approximately R98.1 million, but physical progress was only at 44%, resulting in penalties.
“The SIU investigation needs to establish whether individual officials, contractors or other parties acted unlawfully,” said Sonakile.
“They must also look at how procurement controls operated under national administration and whether warning signs were ignored.”
He added that the North West Department of Public Works and Roads must confront its persistent internal capacity challenges.
“It cannot continue relying excessively on external consultants and service providers while lacking sufficient internal capacity,” he said.
“Strengthening internal capacity is essential if the province is to break the cycle of delayed projects, escalating costs, and poor contractor performance.”
He said the people of North West are entitled to know how an R150 million road contract awarded during that period has now ended up under SIU investigation.
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The biggest problem with these BBEEE Tenders are the fact that ALL these contractors are paid way before the job are completed!!! NO payment should be done before job is completed and investigated and confirmed that indeed it is fully completed. I worked in Dept of labour and also had contractors that should install new network points and repair faulty ones. Person responsible came to me to sign off for payment. Me and anpther colegue went to check as per the work sheet if work was done and found that not nearly halve of the job was done. I REFUSED to sign off and the contractor had to complete to job, we inspected after completion and sign off was done. THAT is was should be done on each and every Tender! NO payment UNTIL inspection was done that JOB is 100% completed. Problem is also corrupted officials sitting in these posts!