The Government may have been overcharged by more than 200 percent for the construction of the Sebele access road that links the A1 main road to the Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services DIS, an independent consultant has revealed.
Reports of possible corruption surrounding the project have come to the fore as the Directorate of Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) pushes forward with its investigations of alleged abuse at DIS.
Sunday Standard investigations have, however, turned up information that DIS boss, Isaac Kgosi, probably unhappy with the charges levied by the contractor engaged the services of an independent consultant to verify the bill of quantities submitted by the winning tendering company, Bango Trading Pty.
The consultant found that the quantities for the material used by Bango Trading in their bid for provision of overlay for the construction of the Sebele access road had been padded, inflating the construction costs by more than P 3 million from P 2,5 million to P5,7 million.
The independent consultant found that the contractor, in their bill of quantities, billed more for the fill and the “cut to spoil” than the quantities they used.
It has also emerged that government may have been bled of more money for mileage traveled by the project vehicle due to negligence and lack of accountability.
The Sunday Standard is in possession of a letter from the project officer, Joel Magadi, to the Works Superintendent Region South East South who had raised concern with the high mileage logged by the project vehicle during the project construction. The mileage was charged on the Roads Department by the contractor.
In his letter justifying the high mileage, Magadi stated that the vehicle does not have a log book to log every trip taken.
Magadi explained: “I do clearly see your concern in this matter, considering the vicinity of the project, but the fact of the matter is that lack of log book makes it difficult to justify where the exorbitant mileage was generated from. Considering the aforementioned assumptions, therefore, they justify the curiosity about the mileage.
“To rectify this scenario and be accountable as it is evident that I have been working hard but not smarter, I had to consider finding a logbook for this vehicle, so that each trip can be accounted for by whoever uses this vehicle, as lack of logbook seems to have opened a door for misuse if indeed there was any.”
