GOVT'S REFUSAL TO PAY E2M COSTS TAXPAYER E22M

MBABANE – Government’s refusal to pay E2 million in compensation to a landowner has cost the taxpayer E22 million.

This is with regard to a piece of land along the Kai-Kai –Hhelehhele road, where the property owner identified only as Kashgar Properties had demanded E2million as compensation for their property to give way to the construction of the Mbadlane-Sikhuphe Road. However, government was only willing to compensate the property owner E900 000. After not seeing eye-to-eye with government, Kashgar Properties took government to court. The court process took a long while and construction of the road could not continue which then attracted standing costs from the contractor Inyatsi which eventually billed government E20 million. It was revealed that government also paid E2 million to Kashgar instead of the E900 000 which it had initially offered. This was revealed during the appearance of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

Revealed

The Chief Roads Engineer Vincent Dlamini revealed that the property was a critical part of the road which was near the Hhelehhele inter-exchange. The PAC was left shocked by the news especially because it was considered a ‘small stretch’ of the road and said government should not have allowed the costs to escalate so high and should have instead compensated Kashgar with the initially demanded E2 million which was eventually paid anyway.

Meanwhile, the auditor general had reported that the contractor  (Inyatsi Construction) had allegedly failed to meet the project completion deadline stipulated in the contract and there were no written justifications provided that were approved by the appropriate authority which could necessitate the review of the programme and strategies to fast track the project. The project according to the AG had commenced on March 31, 2017 as shown by the Engineer’s Instructions to commence civil works. The anticipated project completion date was on March 29, 2020 as indicated by contract number 62 of 2016/2017.

However, according to the AG’s physical verification of works  conducted on June 11, 2020 indicated that the physical progress was at 56 per cent to completion and the duration of the contract had lapsed. “I could not understand what caused the delay in completion of the works because there were no Variation Orders or Force Majeure circumstances submitted for audit that could have delayed the project completion date,” reported the AG.

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