Contractors still not paid despite Protector's order
Three contractors in Gauteng died while still waiting for the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements to pay them for work done on a low-cost housing project in Alexandra, Johannesburg, more than 20 years ago, says a City Press report.
While the minutes of a recent meeting of Alexandra Far East Bank contractors did not mention the deceased contractors by name, the attendants registered dissatisfaction with the department’s failure to comply with the Public Protector’s remedial action issued in 2018 – nearly 20 years since the building work was completed in 1999.
The group of contractors – 45 at the time they complained in 2013 to then Public Protector Thuli Madonsela – claimed outstanding payments ranging from R6 000 to more than R900 000.
According to the final report, issued five years later by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, the department had to implement her office’s remedial action by February 2019, which included conducting an audit to establish how much was owed to each of the contractors whose payment claims were disputed.
Mkhwebane had recommended that 31 of the contractors be paid within 30 days of the release of her report, ‘together with interest calculated at the applicable prescribed rates from November 2005 … to the date of payment’.
Secondly, the department was instructed to ‘appoint a quantity surveyor within 30 days to assess the work done by nine of the remaining contractors and pay them what is due within 15 days of receiving the audit report’.
More than two years later, the department has failed to meet the deadlines set by the Public Protector, notes City Press.
The appointed quantity surveyor could not finish the audit and abandoned the project.
‘The department did appoint the quantity surveyor as part of implementing the remedial action of the Public Protector. Regrettably, the quantity surveyor did not complete the work within the contractual period, which resulted in the termination of his service,’ head of the department Phindile Mbanjwa told one of the remaining claimants, Russel Mthembu, in a letter dated July this year.
City Press says it appears the department was unwilling to reveal the details of the failed contract, as Mthembu filed a promotion of access to information application on 9 August for the records, but the department has yet to comply.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
