Beautification of Victoria outsourced to private contractors |04 January 2008

The director general of the Landscape Management Unit within the Department of Environment, Raymond Brioche, recently explained how this new arrangement will work and what will be the role of his unit which previously had the charge of beautifying and maintaining the gardens in and around town.

He said that this process of outsourcing actually started in 2005 when tenders were put out inviting small Seychellois businesses to provide landscape management services from the vicinity of the International Airport at Pointe Larue to the Bois De Rose Avenue.

The stretch of road and highway was divided into seven sections or zones to allow seven contractors to maintain and beautify each of these zones.

Mr Brioche said that the unit had set some conditions that were to be met by the contractors, among which was that all the 30 workers who were previously employed with the Landscape Unit were to be absorbed by the contracting businesses and that their salaries were to remain the same as when they were in the public sector.

However, the working hours were left for the contractors to decide upon.
The contractors have also been given a guideline as to the kind of services they are to provide, in relation to which their performance and work quality are to be assessed.

DG Brioche expressed satisfaction with the way work has been carried out up until now.
The second phase of the project, which took off recently, is for nine new contractors to carry out landscape management in and around the capital, Victoria. For this purpose, the unit has divided Victoria into nine zones.

The nine contractors are expected to carry out landscape management tasks such as planting, watering and arboriculture (maintenance of trees).

He said that by outsourcing this service, his unit is giving small Seychellois contractors the opportunity to get new businesses.

In Victoria the new contractors started work with all the 28 workers which were previously employed by the Landscape Unit.
Mr Brioche also noted that a monitoring body has been set up to ensure that quality and timely services are delivered by the contractors.

Mr Brioche said that if ever the required standards are not met, the contractors will be notified, and if things do not improve, they will be asked to step down and tender will go out for a new contractor to be brought in.

He said that the outsourcing of these works is much more cost effective for the Department of Environment, adding that the department is confident of receiving services of high standards from these private contractors.