The DA has written to the Limpopo Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure MEC, Ernest Rachoene, to prioritise addressing claims of over R479 million against the Department and its entity Road Agency Limited (RAL) that threatens to impact future plans for road infrastructure in the province.
In response to a DA Parliamentary Question the MEC indicated that the department has a total of R R171. 425 million in legal claims against the department and claims of R307.576 million against RAL in the past five years.
The root causes for these claims are:
· Bad state of provincial roads (potholes and uneven gravel roads)
· Motor vehicle accidents (sustained traveling on RAL roads and attributed to poor maintenance of roads)
· Breach of contracts on awarded projects
· Negligence by officials (government motor vehicle collisions)
· Interest on unpaid invoices
· Contractual disputes (failure to meet contractual obligations, contractors abandoning project sites, failure to implement projects within agreed timeframe and budgets)
The impact that these claims might have on the department’s financial health and the risk it presents to the future plans of the department if it has to pay these claims that are not budgeted for is concerning. This would impact the department and RAL’s programmes and plans.
The high number of claims points to weak internal controls, poor decision making as well as poor management and maintenance of the province’s road infrastructure. A large amount of these claims were avoidable and improved performance and road maintenance would reduce these claims.
MEC Rachoene must hold officials that have contributed to these large legal claim costs accountable and implement a plan to deal with the current claims and to reduce them going forward. These funds should be channelled to improve the road infrastructure backlog and improve the lives of the people of Limpopo.