KwaZulu-Natal Transport MEC, Siboniso Duma, has expressed concerns that 30 contractors who were awarded road tenders cost the department R4.6 billion because they don’t complete the projects by the deadline.

Two of these contractors have abandoned projects altogether.

Duma says the department plans to meet with the Construction Industry Development Board about these problems, because some companies lie about the scale of the contracts they are able to handle.

The KwaZulu-Natal Transport says 30 contractors are failing to complete the projects they tendered for, on time.

Transport MEC, Siboniso Duma, says these companies are said to have a level 6 to 9 grading with the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB). The board’s grading is an indicator of how big a contract a company is able to handle.

Duma says they have discussed the delays with the 30 contractors and have found that they sometimes lack resources or don’t have a big enough cash flow.

“At this point in time, we have realised that those projects that haven’t been completed or commenced make around R4.6 billion, and some haven’t started on the ground. And we are compromised as a country. There are so-called established contractors who take many projects at once, and this is something we need to deal with it and when they have a cashflow problem and it has an effect on all projects they are working on,” says Duma.

Duma says indications are that contractors lie about their grading when they tender.

“Our current findings are that at their adjudication awards, the contractors might not have been active on CIDB, and it is something we found and it’s a phenomenon, and it’s something that we must deliberate on. When their status is being reviewed, it’s they either have no record of being registered, show lower grades, and have been suspended by CIDB. Recently, we have agreed that we are to meet with CIDB and with these matters with CIDB as the body,” adds Duma.

One of the projects that has been abandoned altogether is a road project at Hammersdale outside Durban.

Residents say it has a huge impact on them.

“This area was affected by heavy rains two years ago, and our vehicles cannot move on this main road and we have to drive around, which is a costly exercise,” says one of the residents.

“We are forced to go through the thick forest, and we come back due to the shortage of roads. Some are robbed of their belongings because they come late from work,” says another resident.