The Botswana Housing Corporation says it is committed to empowering citizen-owned contractors in line with government empowerment schemes. The statement comes amid concerns that citizen-owned companies are being overlooked during awarding of tenders.
“BHC is committed to empowering citizen-owned contractors in line with the Economic Diversification Drive, which is aimed at stimulating local production and consumption by procuring from both locally-based manufacturers and service providers. The project we are handing over today was done by a citizen contractor, CC Project (Pty) Ltd,” BHC Chief Executive Officer, Reginald Motswaiso, said when officiating at the handover of 36 flat units to the Botswana Unified Revenue Service (BURS) at Ramokgwebana Border Post.
BHC handed over to BURS the units, which were completed at a total cost of P36.1 million through its project management arm. It is expected that the project will help alleviate shortage of accommodation for BURS staff at the Ramokgwebana Border Post.
Motswaiso added that BHC follows a set of specific tender guidelines in line with the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) tender procedures in the award of its tenders for construction works.
“We do, however, acknowledge that there are challenges that we have to deal with when managing some of the projects leading to delays in delivery. We continue to engage contractors regularly through site meetings to mitigate such eventualities and to ensure that everything goes accordingly in as far as our projects are concerned,” he said.
The BHC boss said where contractors fail to fulfill their obligations in terms of the contract for any work in progress, the corporation takes necessary steps to remedy the situation for successful delivery.
On the Ramokgwebana Border Post project, Motswaiso said that the success of the project signifies their commitment to delivery of third party projects through their project management arm. He added that the corporation has a long standing relationship with BURS as can be evidenced by a number of successfully completed projects at various locations around the country.
“Our relationship with BURS dates back as far as 2007 when we were tasked with building guard houses and providing maintenance works for several buildings at the Tlokweng Border Post and the contract sum for the whole project was approximately P1.2 million. In 2009, BURS also assigned us two significant projects at Maitengwe and Matsiloje Border Posts, which involved construction of office blocks, staff houses, guard houses and inspection sheds all of which were completed at a cost of P23.1 million,” said the corporation general manager.
Speaking at the same event, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands and Housing, Maotoanong Sebina, said that the handover is a testimony that BHC continues to strive to deliver what it has been directed to do by government.
He said that external projects management has become one of the corporation’s strategic roles owing to its immense experience in managing large scale developments which are seen in most towns and villages around the country.
“Since its inception in 1970, BHC has earned itself a top spot as the largest property developer in the country. Its ability to manage these developments has enabled it to curve itself a niche in the area of project management for construction development of numerous clients. This particular project and a lot others before exemplifies the corporation’s ability and technical knowhow in the area of project management which continues to earn it trust among its clients for delivering quality projects,” said Sebina.
