The City of Joburg’s Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) has terminated the contracts of some of its service providers due to project delays and poor workmanship.
The JDA, which manages and facilitates infrastructure development projects, on Thursday said the total value of the contracts terminated is R244 million.
About R88.5 million of that had already been spent by the contractors in question.
The agency said the process of appointing replacement contractors for the affected projects was currently underway, with most projects expected to resume this financial year.
Johannesburg’s MMC for Development Planning, Belinda Echeozonjoku, recently conducted an oversight visit to Diepsloot and Blairgowrie to inspect delayed projects.
Echeozonjoku said she witnessed first-hand the “shocking” poor quality of some of the workmanship. She expressed concern about the project delays and lamented the impact this had on communities.
“Non-performing contractors not only cause unnecessary delays to much-needed community projects, but also hinder people the opportunity to (sic) enjoying basic services.
“I have been consistent in calling for contractors that fail to deliver projects on time and hold the city to ransom to have their contracts terminated,” Echeozonjoku said.
The MMC said most of the issues at JDA were caused by the lack of planning as well as organisational constraints.
The management team said it had introduced more stringent due diligence processes around the appointment of contractors.
It will make it compulsory for each recommended contractor to submit certain documents and confirm liquidity before an award is made.
The acting CEO of the JDA Siyabonga Genu said ‘We have developed a consolidated procurement plan that is being tracked weekly by myself, as the acting CEO. We have also started talking about a long-term plan to introduce an e-tender process to create efficiencies and transparency.’
[Photo: Clodagh da Paixoa for unsplash]