The Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation says it is not happy with some of the reasons provided by the department for the delays in the implementation of projects.
The department appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Water and Sanitation, on Wednesday, to answer questions relating to delays in the implementation of a number of bulk water supply projects. Addressing the committee the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), led by Deputy Minister Pamela Tshwete and Acting Director-General Deborah Mochotlhi, attributed the challenges to “poor planning and failure to properly implement procurement policies”.Delays are costly
“At the heart of your problem is poor planning. If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail. You don’t have planners and that’s the crux of what we are dealing with here,” said committee chairperson Mlungisi Johnson. The committee also expressed concerned that the delays may cost the taxpayer more money through lengthy litigation processes and the payment of contractors for waiting time.Challenges of service delivery
During the meeting, the department touched on unfinished infrastructure projects that it was working on.In a statement, department spokesperson Sputnik Ratau said Tshwete had highlighted challenges of service delivery whilst manoeuvring the legislative space that separates roles and responsibilities.
“The DWS is required to provide bulk services, and the reticulation from such bulk services lies in the hands of local government. It is therefore imperative that as we continue to develop such bulk, we engage local government to ensure the necessary provision of requisite reticulation,” said Tshwete.
