‘SHODDY ROAD ’ RAGE
BCM pays R2m for 350m dirt track
One day after a construction company submitted an invoice for work on a R1.9m Kidd s ’ Beach road rehabilitation project that many consider shoddy ”, Buffalo City Metro signed “off on a payment of more than R1m.
Less than two weeks later, the company, Gqobo Investments, submitted another invoice for more than R800,000 to the municipality.
The problem, according to residents of Maqazeni near Kidd s Beach and concerned ’ BCM insiders, is that the construction company was on site only a few days in August, “” the work covered only a quarter of what was supposed to be done and it is considered not up to scratch.
A culvert built by Gqobo Investments in August is already caving in, the headwall is cracking and the water pipe below the surface is heavily blocked.
The company used sabunga for work it did complete, though company director Gwiba Gqobo insists they used crushed material from a quarry 6km away from the village ”.
“Nokuvela Ngubelanga, a ward 31 community activist and former BCM ward councillor, said there was no way the work was worth R1.9m.
“All around this area where this company worked, they used sabunga. That s a very soft ’ soil that will be eroded during this rainy season.
“There is no other type of sand or stone used to re-gravel this road. Look at the culvert, which was built in August - it s caving ’ in,” she said.
A senior BCM official told the Dispatch the work was worth between R270,000 and R300,000 at most ”, but even that was a “stretch, he believes, given the poor quality of the workmanship.
The contract has a total value of R1,946 021,93 and was meant to rehabilitate a more than one kilometer stretch of road. Only a stretch of between 300m and 400m has been done.
Of the total amount, R678,000 is for contractor “s establishment ”, R849,000 for mass ’ earthworks and R231,000,00 for gravel material for paving layers.
The balance of the money is for labour and additional work.
Gqobo admitted to the Dispatch that his company had to cut the work short.
“The road to the cemetery was not finished because of the distance we were paid for. We have to build a culvert there after the water could not go through under that one.
“We have had to use our money. It was not our work to do that culvert,” Gqobo said. We also used Q5 material from a quarry “about 6km away from the village. We were there for 10 days.
We were told by the village leadership of “what road to do and where their priorities were, Gqobo said. ”
Q5 material is a type of gravel stone mined from a quarry that is then crushed into the road using grid rollers.
Maqazeni residents told the Dispatch workers were on site for about four days at most.
The Dispatch has seen BCM documents about the project.
What stands out is that the Bill of Quantities (BOQ) attached to Gqobo Investments “” ’ invoices was not prepared by the company, but by BCM officials.
A BOQ is a detailed statement of work, prices, dimensions and other aspects in a construction project. When asked about this, Gqobo said: I “don t know about that BOQ, I did not see ’ that. Remember, when we bid for this contract, we attached our BOQs there.
It was a long time ago. The work we did “there [on the project] was rate-based,” he told Dispatch.
Amounts reflected on the BOQ are exactly the same as those used in a BOQ for another project in Chalumna s Openshaw village.
’ The cost of Openshaw s road rehabilitation ’ is the same amount that Gqobo Investments invoiced BCM.
The Dispatch visited Openshaw and noticed that the roads and village landscape were not the same as what was encountered at Maqazeni. According to the same BCM documents, the requisition for the work was made on July 21.
A note from a senior BCM official on July 28, also seen by Dispatch, reads: Non-compliant.
“Please create an order for Gqobo Investments as per attached BOQ [Bill of Quantity].”
The attached BOQ the official refers to is the Openshaw BOQ.
Gqobo said his company started working on the project on August 9, yet within just three days on site, the company had invoiced BCM for an amount of R1,129,622,81.
The Dispatch has seen two invoices submitted by Gqobo Investments on August 12 and August 26 respectively.
On the same day of the August 12 invoice, BCM official Zola Mboneli confirms that goods and services were received in a satisfactory “condition ”.
A day later, on August 13, BCM s GM for ’ roads and construction, Sandile Sojini, approved that Gqobo Investments be paid for the work. On August 26, the same company submitted another invoice worth R816,399.12 for the same Maqazeni project.
The senior BCM official told the Dispatch: “They [Gqobo Investments] were given the work on a silver platter and were even told what to do as they were given the BOQ.
“It s worth it to check who else benefited. ’ This work is worth between R270,000 and R300,000.”
BCM spokesperson Sam Ngwenya confirmed the company did get the work but in two instances he contradicted what the company had told the Dispatch.
The company said the contract was for 1.4km but BCM said it was for 1.5km.
Ngwenya also said the company was only responsible for piping to channel stormwater.
“There was no construction of a culvert [as Gqobo had said].”
He said the BOQ was just an estimate.
“The actual scope of work is done with ward committees together with the ward councillor on site.”
He said the project was value for money. “Pictures before, during and after getsubmitted together with invoice to the GM,” he said.