The long-awaited construction of the new Gahanga Stadium has been put on hold indefinitely.

The move must have come as a disappointment for many who had been looking forward to the stadium being one of the venues for the 2016 Africa Nations Championships (Chan).

Officials on one hand say "contractual issues” with a Turkish construction firm was the cause of the delay, but on the other, they cite architectural faults in the design. But whatever the cause, it is a sign of weakness, either by our legal minds that helped draft the contract or the engineers who did not exercise due diligence.

There had been earlier reports that the delay was a result of the slow pace to expropriate residents who would have to give way to the construction, but there could be something more to that – negligence.

It might seem a minor issue, but therein lies a much more complex and costly state of affairs that have dogged the government for some time. The Ministry of Justice recently claimed that the government was losing billions of dollars each year in litigations.

In most circumstances, the lawsuits would have been avoided if those concerned had invested a little more in their job descriptions, but that ghost seems to have gone nowhere. But the devil lies in the details.

Many stalled projects are also a result of not taking care of small details that cause bigger headaches if left unattended to. Gahanga stadium should not be one of them.