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Contractors are believed to have inflated prices and raked in millions of rands supplying material in a R46 million project where workers were paid between R75 and R92 a day to erect un-electrified fences in Limpopo.
When asked to explain, the Limpopo agriculture department said it could “not rule out the possibility of overpricing” by suppliers although “this was an open tender and lowest quoted prices were considered”.
With so much money spent on the project, questions now are how much did contractors make and whether the department got value for money.
The DA in the province believed the department failed to closely monitor the project, leaving space for suppliers to manipulate the system and inflate prices while those who sweated in the sun constructing the fence earned peanuts.
“Many projects were grossly overpriced but the department failed to verify if the money spent was worth the scale of the project before they were paid. The DA urges agriculture MEC, Mapula Mokaba-Phukwana, to establish if there was any unnecessary overpricing from suppliers and “to take steps against any such suppliers to recoup the money”, the provincial party spokesperson on agriculture, Jacques Smalle, said.
This 970-kilometre project in which un-electrified fencing was constructed at about 60 farms, has come under scrutiny by the agriculture portfolio committee in the province.
There were several notable discrepancies and eyebrow-raising details on a list of project sites seen by City Press.
The highest amount on one site known as Modimolle Red Meat was R5.9 million spent on a 4km fence constructed by 32 Expanded Public Works Programme workers. According to calculations from a daily pay rate of between R75 and R92 they would not take home anything close to R3 000 even if they worked every day of the month.
Disparities can be noted on several project sites where a reduced amount of money was spent on shorter fences constructed by a large number of Expanded Public Works Programme workers.
In one instance, at a farm known as Mogalakwena Mapela Red Meat, R2.2 million was spent on an 8km fence erected by 105 workers but it cost more than double this amount to put up half the length of fencing with even fewer workers at Modimolle Red Meat.
The largest number of workers on a project was 168, paid R92 a day, to erect 21km of fence at Lepelle Nkumpi Area Wide, where only R937 194 was spent.
On the flip side, less money was spent on the longest fencing project at a site known as Mogalakwena Mapela in Mookgopong Municipality, where the registered cost was R28 572 on 52km of fencing erected by 105 workers at R92 a day.
The department could not give an exact explanation. Spokesperson Selby Makgotho said: “It must be borne in mind that there are other cost-drivers involved such as the clearing of fencing lines, material, labour and other consumables involved.”
