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PARLY, CABINET IN E900M PROJECT STANDOFF

14/12/2014 08:22:00 BY MFANUKHONA NKAMBULE

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Mps seated during the official opening of parliament which usually takes place in the chambers of the House of Assembly

MBABANE – Cabinet ministers are desperately making attempts, behind the scenes, to lobby MPs to urgently reconvene to pass the E900 million loan Bill for the Strategic Oil Reserve Facility Project to be built in Phuzamoya. This follows the deferment of the E900 million Bill for the project by Members of Parliament (MPs) on Wednesday.

The House of Assembly postponed the debate of the Bill, questioning the closed tendering system used to engage Kantey and Templer (Pty) Limited to construct the fuel reservoir.
MPs are unhappy that other companies were not engaged, through an open tendering system, to bid for the multimillion project.

The Times SUNDAY got information that rumours started circulating before the Bill was piloted on Wednesday that “there was more than meet eye” in the whole deal.
Suspicion reac- hed high levels when the MPs learnt that a closed tendering system was used to engage the South African company to embark on the project.
The nature of the suspicions cannot be repeated for now.

After punching holes in the E900 Million Loan Bill, they then surfed the internet to investigate the business profile of the company.
Internet information, according to the MPs, helped them establish that it was a consulting engineering company.

They then wondered why a consulting engineer – and not a contractor - was engaged to set up the structure and why Jabulile Mashwama, the Minister of Natural Resources and Energy, introduced a consulting engineering company to KaMkhweli residents.

With researched information at their disposal, one MP said, they were ready for any minister who was to motivate the Bill.
This included the prime minister.

“Luckily, the prime minister showed up on Wednesday and we took him head on because we had collected facts about the project. We know more, which we cannot reveal now,” said the MP.

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Comments (2 posted):

Musa Zondi on 14/12/2014 11:05:00

If given a EPCM contract, then the company has the ability to do the job. They will do the engineering and design, procure the contractor and manage the different contractor and carry the risk that the project is done at R900m. The only concern is: 1) The previous company was thrown out systematically because their model was going to make petroleum expensive - now the proce here is the same. 2) Kantey and Templer (Pty) Limited has never been awarded a contract this big - they have no experience in such large projects, they experience ends at R250m, even then they do that as a consortium - thus its a risk for Swaziland, but it can be managed, 3) This project is now looking for a R1bn loan - couldn't this be a PPP as was previously proposed so that the funding is largely private & recovered from petroleum levies. The SG debt is already very high. 4) MPs should not block this just because they are being lobbied by a former Minister that came with the project by AT&V - AT&V model was flawed and inflated petroleum prices significantly, the King was told half truths. 5) SD needs investment - this is not an investment, but Government funding. A open tender PPP must be the ultimate goal for Parliament and the Ministry should be sent back to do an open tender under a PPP model