| Gautrain: Govt faces R10bn lawsuit [boodskap #119374] |
Sun, 07 March 2010 14:37 |
Etienne Marais
Boodskappe: 370
Geregistreer: March 1997
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(Antwoord van 'n news24 leser op die artikel)
land of the incompetent and thieves: if you can avoid and absorb it
stop contracting for organs of state. Disinvesting is the only answer
as the newly added planning departments now even want to partially
nationalize pension funds of employees thinking that it is their
moeny ... they are looking for citizens' resources to pay for blunders
such as these. All the failed socialist and communist policies tested
over a century ago, are repeated by far more clue-less ministers and
officials.Impossible
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(artikel)
Gautrain: Govt faces R10bn lawsuit
Mar 07 2010 13:49
Antoinette Slabbert
Pretoria - A claim of more than R10bn against the Gauteng government
is seemingly in the offing for "delays and disruptions" to Gautrain
building operations.
This is according to Jeremy Cronin, Deputy Minister of Transport,
following remarks by Brian Bruce, chief executive of Murray & Roberts.
Murray & Roberts is part of the Bombela consortium, which is building
and will operate the Gautrain system.
If the claim succeeds, Gauteng's taxpayers will have to foot the
bill.
If it does not, shareholders in Murray & Roberts and French group
Bouygues, together with the other shareholders in Bombela, would have
to bear the additional costs that the contractors have incurred.
For the six months to December 31 Murray & Roberts deferred R230m's
operating profit from the Gautrain project in light of this possible
claim.
The fact that the project, according to Bouygues, is proceeding
haltingly is evident from a reference in the group's annual results
last week to the "negative impact of the Gautrain project" on the
construction subsidiary's operating profit.
But how has the claim arisen? Bruce says the Gauteng government handed
over the building sites late and in a completely different sequence
from that agreed upon.
In such a complex project this can totally upset a contractor's
planning and involve additional expense.
This seemingly left the contractor with entirely too little time for
investigations into soil conditions in dolomitic and sinkhole-ridden
Centurion.
The assignment of risk for this dolomite is one of the other points of
contention. Jack van der Merwe, chief executive of the Gautrain, from
the outset said that it would be for Bombela's account, but Bruce
simply smiles at this.
Bruce also announced that Bombela had concluded an agreement with the
Gauteng government to accelerate by a couple of weeks a temporary,
scaled-down version of the first phase of the train system - the link
between Sandton and the OR Tambo Airport - so that it would be
completed before the World Cup soccer tournament kicked off.
Bombela would apparently have borne the associated cost, and then
later tried to recoup it as part of the claim.
Airport link
Van der Merwe and Bombela technical director Errol Braithwaite said
that the agreement had not been ratified yet, although negotiations
were well advanced.
In January the Gauteng government rejected an earlier offer from
Bombela to accelerate the airport link.
This would have cost the province an additional R1.3bn, but the real
thorn in the flesh was that it would be linked to referral of the
claim to the dispute-settlement procedure provided in the Gautrain
contract.
According to Cronin this would mean that claims for billions would be
determined through arbitration in the space of 20 days.
Even if it were tested later in court, the determination would become
effective in the interim.
Cronin says the procedure is aimed at quickly resolving small disputes
so that the project can proceed.
Frequently the procedure is to divide the amount in dispute. If a
claim of R10bn were to be divided in this way, government would have
to pony up R5bn that it does not have.
Cronin says the difficulty was that the province would have to borrow
it and burden the project with a great deal of debt.
This would also put the sustainability of the project in the balance
at the operating phase.
The contractors, who will largely walk away from the project after the
construction phase, could delay the subsequent court case
indefinitely, while holding on to a stack of money.
According to Cronin, the province is insisting that the claim goes to
court, where complex technical and financial information can be
thoroughly examined.
Meanwhile, time is running out to reach a substantive agreement about
the acceleration of the airport link.
The Gauteng government is, however, determined not to be blackmailed
and is reportedly making interim arrangements for bus transport should
the train not be ready in time.
- Sake24.com
For more business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com
( http://tinyurl.com/yfr4nq3 )
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