CEO PAYS A COURTESY ON GOVERNMENT HOUSING INTIATIVE CONTRACTORS

Date: 
10 Mar 2016

The Chief Executive Officer of Botswana Housing Corporation, Mr Reginald Motswaiso recently took a tour of Government Housing Initiative Projects in the Boteti Region. The tour comes at a time when the Corporation just commenced the Public Officers Housing Initiative (POHI) in many part of the country. The Public Officers Housing Initiatives is part of Government’s efforts to address shortage of accommodation amongst public servants. The objective of this tour was mainly to check progress of the ongoing projects as well as meet with contractors and gather some of the concerns with regards to these particular projects.
 

Speaking to contractors at a short meeting in Letlhakane at the POHI construction site, Mr Motswaiso encouraged contractors to hire Batswana starting that these projects are part of Government’s efforts towards job creation and ensuring that there is skills transfer in trades such as building and others. He pointed out that it is the Government’s hope to see more Batswana benefiting from these projects through both development and labour. He further implored contractors to ensure that projects are completed well in time so that they can be delivered to beneficiaries accordingly. Mr Motswaiso encouraged them to work hand in hand with the Building Inspectors starting that they are there to assist with whatever needs to be done as far as these projects are concerned.
When addressing some of the challenges experienced by contractors such as unavailability of materials in some areas such as bricks in Letlhakane for instance, Mr Motswaiso encouraged contractors to bargain together as a unit in order to achieve economies of scale when negotiating for materials with suppliers. He said that would also address the issue of delays as suppliers would see to it that they deliver in bulk for all contractors and hence projects would be expedited to meet deadlines as per the agreement with the Corporation.
 

When thanking the CEO for paying a courtesy call on them, one of the POHI and SHHA Turnkey Contractors in Letlhakane thanked him for making an effort to come all the way from Gaborone to talk to them and give them a word of encouragement. He promised the CEO on behalf of all contractors that they will see to it that projects are delivered accordingly as per the agreement between them and BHC.
 

The Corporation is has been given a target to complete a total of 540 POHI houses in various areas across the country in a bid to alleviate shortage of accommodation amongst civil servants. Furthermore the Corporation is currently developing SHHA Turnkey houses across various Constituencies in the country which are progressing very well.