Johannesburg - Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Sihle Zikalala has called for an audit on all the blocked and incomplete construction projects estimated at billions of rand.
This comes after Zikalala visited the Free State, where he saw first-hand the rot in some of the incomplete infrastructure projects in the province.
Zikalala lamented the wastage of government funds and also issued a stern warning to construction companies and unscrupulous contractors who provide shoddy work to the government.
He said the companies and developers found guilty of defrauding and fleecing the government through shoddy infrastructure projects would be blacklisted from doing business with the government.
On Friday, the minister was in Parys and Bloemfontein, where he conducted an intensive tour of infrastructure projects.
His visit to the province took him to yet another unfinished R232 million Correctional Service Centre in Parys as well as the Park Road Police Station in Bloemfontein.
According to the department, these two incomplete projects had also missed their completion dates by over four years due to a growing tendency by construction companies to claim liquidation and incapacity in a bid to continue after claiming portions of the project funds.
This then leads to work being ceded to a new company, which leads to cost escalations and eventually the ballooning of costs and delays in the delivery of key infrastructure.
“As a government, we can no longer tolerate this tendency of projects being halted due to construction company incapacities. We need to have projects delivered on time and within scope. This calls for proper planning, monitoring and consequence management,” Zikalala said.
He said there was no justification for a project to start in 2017, and six years later, that project is still incomplete.
“We should not have a project started in 2017 that is still incomplete in 2023. In one project, a total of three companies were appointed, but the projects are still incomplete. We need to respond to this challenge of failing contractors, especially after some money has been paid. This is unacceptable,” he added.
The minister said corruption in government tender systems was rife, and contractors and officials had normalised corruption in this sector.
“One of the most critical actions in fighting corruption and entrenching a culture of timely delivery of projects is to restrict those serial non-performers from doing business with the government.
“The facilities that get delayed are centres from which service delivery is launched by the police to build safer communities and other departments to render service delivery to citizens. It is high time that we address poor project management in government programmes,” the minister said.
The minister also called for an audit of all the blocked and incomplete projects, estimated at billions of rand.
“The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure needs to earn the confidence of departments as the implementing agent of choice, and we will not have our name liquidated by poor planning, project management, or outright incompetence. We will not associate ourselves with any company that performs poorly,” he said.
The Star
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