An independent analysis conducted for the Opposition to Urban Tolling Alliance (Outa), has revealed gross over-payment for road construction in South Africa, essentially putting the blame to South Africa National Road Agency Limited (Sanral) .
The research findings revealed that road construction in the country costs between 100 percent and 300 percent higher than global benchmarks.
Outa chairman, Wayne Duvenage said that the alliance was still analysing the research but claimed the South Africa National Road Agency Limited (Sanral) was getting away with exorbitant prices for road construction projects.
Duvenage added that other forces were involved in the foul play with a strong chance of mismanagement and corruption.
“We also believe there is a cosy relationship between construction companies and Sanral that allows them to get away with exorbitant prices.
“That is spelt out by the fact that the same collusive companies on the Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project are the same companies that are able to submit unsolicited bids in the Western Cape and get toll contracts,” he s aid.
Sanral General Manager of communications Vusi Mona, however said the alliance must publish the report for scrutiny so that Sanral could engage with it and its authors.
Mon a said Sanral was not aware of any unit cost for road construction that was an international benchmark. He said typography and availability of material differed from country to country.
Sanral also denied allegations that there they were in cahoots with other construction companies, Mona said, emphasizing that the alliance must furnish Sanral with proof of any such cosy relationship.
Sanral has a policy on unsolicited bids, for the Western Cape, but such bids are still subjected tonormal procurement processes. No toll contract was awarded in the Western Cape For the record, only a preferred bidder was identified,” he said.
Operations director at Master Builders South Africa, Pierre Fourie, however differed with the alliance saying that the product the alliance was referring to was civil construction and not building work.
“We have certainly not produced a document or formed an opinion whether prices Sanral paid were out of the ordinary. We don’t have opinion on that,” he said.
Fourie referred further queries to the SA Forum of Civil Engineering Contractors, but its executive director, Webster Mfebe, was not available for comment.
Duvenage said that when a road was built in South Africa, the cost of lane-per-kilometer varied but was between 100 percent and 300 percent more than what it cost in other parts of the world.
He argued that the increased cost could not be attributed to imported products because bitumen was readily available in South Africa, coupled with well known labour costs and road building machinery which are in the country.
According to him, there is no reason to say that local conditions will push up prices and make road construction more expensive in South Africa compared to other countries.
“Something is still amiss,” he added.
Duvenage said the huge difference in road construction costs in South Africa compared with other countries in the world could be caused by collusion between the client that possibly allowed consultants, contractors and middlemen to charge exorbitantly high fees.
it’s most likely that a facilitation fee paid to BEE front companies is responsible for the abnormal costs – this is the way ‘business’ is done in the new SA