Potential benefits of Botswana"s transport sector project will be lessened because of poor equipment maintenance and inadequate spare parts support

Audit report covers the period 8/79-12/82 and is based on document review, site visits, discussions with GOB and USAID/B personnel. The Central Transport Organization, on assignment from the Roads Department, has not properly maintained AID-funded road building equipment. Too few mechanics, poor maintenance management, and irresponsible recordkeeping will cause equipment to have a short life span and be unavailable for maintenance work. In addition, spare parts are not ordered and kept in supply on a timely basis as most spare parts must be ordered from the U.S., and delivery takes six months, the result is sidelining of roadbuilding equipment and therefore inadequate maintenance. In abrogation of the project agreement, project road building equipment has been used for non-maintenance work, including private road maintenance, police station road surfacing, and mental hospital parking lot repair. The computerized cost accounting system which was installed within the roads department is operationally hampered by a lack of qualified local nationals to manage the operation and poor data collection methodology. Since this system is already in place, attempts will be made to try to use it, but cost/benefit expectations are low.