Chanoga – A local area Member of Parliament for Mawana settlement which falls under the Maun East constituency – Goretetse Kekgonegile has expressed worries relating to the non-payment of some construction workers across the country.
Kekgonegile, a former trade unionist was speaking at the North West Grid Transmission Grid project which was launched by President Mokgweetsi Masisi last week Thursday.
The project was financed by the government through the power utility company – Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and was awarded to three main contractors.
While Kekgonegile was not specific on which companies are guilty of the act, he pointed an accusing finger at some contractors who despite receiving payments for works awarded to them through government tenders still exploit their employees by not paying salaries.
He noted that the trend has been observed throughout the country whereby workers are sent from pillar to post whenever their time to receive wages arrives, something which he said should be discouraged as it lowers employee morale and sometimes lead to non-completion of projects. He advised such contractors to up their game, to appreciate and meet government halfway by way of complying to the terms of their contracts. “You need to improve in this aspect. I am afraid that if you continue with this that you are doing you might lose government jobs which would have been of benefit to yourselves and start accusing innocent people. By so doing also you are not only degrading yourselves but tarnishing the reputation of your own companies. This is bad even for personal growth, so please you need to reconsider your actions”. Meanwhile Kekgonegile appreciated the BPC contractor for having completed the power project on time and within budget as compared to some local and international construction companies which did the opposite in the past.
