P800m Moleps Water Tender due for Award

Project set to be submitted to Tender Management Committee

LETLHOGILE MPUANG

Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) is close to finalising the award for the much-awaited construction of the Gamononyane Pump Station-Molepolole NSC Connection Pipeline tender that is valued at over P800 million, The Botswana Gazette has established.

After almost more than 10 years since the government promised to provide a permanent solution to the water crisis in Molepolole and its subsidiary villages, the tender was advertised in September last year with the process expected to be concluded in April 2021.

According to information gathered by this publication, WUC engineers are close to concluding the due diligence process before referring the tender to the Tender Management Committee of the Ministry of Land Management, Water and Sanitation Services.

This process is meant to close all possible gaps indentified from the recommendations made by a consulting engineer who was appointed by the ministry’s Project Management Officers before the transfer of high capital water projects from the Project Management Officers to WUC.

The CEO of Water Utilities Corporation, Gaselemogwe Senai, told this publication this week that the tender was in the process of being submitted to the Tender Management Committee for approval of the recommendations.

“At this moment the tender has not come before me,” he said. “As far as I am concerned, it is still with the projects director and project teams. I will only receive the tender once it has been finalised and I will be responsible for representing it to the tender management committee. I have not even seen any of the recommendations done by the consultant.”

Once the tender is awarded, the project is expected to be done as an emergency and will be completed in 12 months. This tender was recently linked to a corruption controversy by the leader of the Umbrella of Democratic Change (UDC), Duma Boko.