The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Youth, Civic Relations, and Community Development is urging individuals bidding for government tenders to be realistic and only take on projects they can fully deliver on.

The committee visited projects in the Kavango West Region that were budgeted by the government for completion over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework.

Hompa Daniel Sitentu Mpasi Secondary School was one such project assessed by the committee.

Phase one of the project is the construction of classrooms and ablution facilities, and the committee chairperson, Austen Samupwa, said they are not pleased with the progress.

"But we also noticed that there is an issue of poor workmanship again at this school. The school is new. It's supposed to be very new, but we discover that there are termites everywhere already eating at the school. This means that the building could collapse at any time before the specific date when renovations were supposed to occur."

Samupwa added that "The other one is that the rails are already falling apart. There is also a problem with the learners who are physically challenged. We saw something there, which the work inspector explained is not acceptable at all and needs to be removed for those learners who are physically challenged to be able to move with ease from one classroom to the next."

The school with 130 learners is already showing cracks on the walls and floors attributed to the low-quality materials. 

"This practice of awarding contracts to individuals who then subcontract inexperienced workers to construct buildings that endanger our children's lives is no longer acceptable. We need to repeatedly emphasise that if you receive a government contract, you must ensure that the work you do is of high quality and sustainable for future generations. That is what we are calling for."

This project commenced in June last year and was completed in October of the same year. 

This year, they continued with the construction of ablution facilities, a water tank stand and fencing since June, and they are expected to be completed at the end of next month.

Samupwa concluded that "We will report back to parliament. It is for parliament now to say this is the way forward. Adopt the report, or adopt the report with some changes here and there, and then after parliament has done that, the line ministry will be informed on what parliament has decided on."

The project was awarded to the August 26 company.