Joburg terminates service providers’ contracts valued over R200m due to project delays, poor workmanship

The Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA), an agency of the City of Joburg, has terminated the contracts of some of its service providers due to several project delays and poor workmanship.

The JDA, which manages and facilitates infrastructure development projects, on Thursday said the total value of the contracts terminated as close to 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.

Delayed projects

Johannesburg’s MMC for Development Planning, Belinda Echeozonjoku, recently conducted an oversight visit to Diepsloot and Blairgowrie to inspect projects that had been delayed due to poor-performing contractors.

Echeozonjoku said she witnessed first-hand the “shocking” poor quality of some of the workmanship.

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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 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 in a statement.

The MMC said most of the issues at JDA were caused by the lack of planning and organisational constraints.

She reiterated her support for the new JDA board and senior management on the work they were undertaking to turn the entity around.

Due diligence processes

The management team at JDA said it introduced more stringent due diligence processes around the appointment of contractors.

It said it would make it compulsory for each recommended contractor to submit certain documents and confirm liquidity before an award was made.

The acting CEO of the JDA Siyabonga Genu said that the agency was going through instability in the recent past, which negatively impacted performance.

 He said management was confident that things were changing for the better.

“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.

“The planning for the next financial year has already started and we are optimistic that the current interventions will be evident,” Genu said.

Compiled by Thapelo Lekabe

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