Fresh storm brews over national fibre optic cable project

Information gleaned from ICT Ministry website says the project, whose phase II reportedly commenced discreetly in the wake of a parliamentary freeze, is to “put in place optic fibre infrastructure countrywide to enhance connectivity and transmission of data, voice and video communication”.

Information gleaned from ICT Ministry website says the project, whose phase II reportedly commenced discreetly in the wake of a parliamentary freeze, is to “put in place optic fibre infrastructure countrywide to enhance connectivity and transmission of data, voice and video communication”.

PIONEER: Mr Mulira

The government, represented by Communications and Broadcasting Infrastructure chief, Godfrey Kibuuka and Fan Siyong, the country managing director of Huawei Technologies Company signed the original $127.9 million (Shs243b), inclusive of a $21.3 million (Shs40.5b) ‘book entry’ tax, for installation of the 2,122-kilometre NBI/ENI facility to boost local Internet capacity.

Immediate benefits
The idea being that local bandwidth for electronic communication will be expanded and access to Internet services made cheaper, faster and more efficient across the country. This way, government business could be conducted on line, saving time and costs. Other benefits would include real time on-line consultancy for things such as tele-medicine or auditing books of accounts of foreign multinational companies from the comfort of one’s room here.

China’s Export/Import (EXIM) Bank, following preliminary understandings reached during the 2006 China-Africa summit, provided the loan to finance the three-phase project, money Uganda will have to repay unless waived.
Dr Kibuuka was the key government supervisor for phase I works at a time when the infant ICT ministry, founded largely by staff of the former Uganda Computer Service, was reeling with skeletal staffing which impinged its ability to fully oversee the heavy infrastructure project.
Official investigations found that work to establish five transmission stations in Jinja, Mukono, Bombo, Entebbe towns and the capital Kampala and their networking over 191 kilometres underground, was substandard.
This is after significant sections of the installation between Kampala-Jinja, Kampala-Bombo and Kampala-Entebbe and within the city’s Metropolitan area crumbled shortly afterwards, temporarily disabling digital communication on the system that also connects the 28 ministry headquarters in the city.

The Parliamentary ICT committee, after preliminary inspection, ordered Huawei Technologies to fix the break ups, some blamed on road works and excavation by other utility providers; freeze commencement of phase II of the project and directed the Auditor General to do a value-for-money appraisal of work executed at the time. The findings of that check were sent to Parliament on January 8 and the report that the Auditor General John Muwanga prepared last December, concluded that the work was shabbily done, overpriced and fraught with irregularities.

James Mulebeke, the Huawei Technologies’ assistant director in Uganda, yesterday told Daily Monitor by phone that he was out of the country and unable to comment because “I don’t know what is on the ground”. The AG’s report says the contractors claimed the remedial works, covering Kyambogo-Jinja stretch, partly sub-contracted to Bankshire Technologies Company linked to presidential aide Ibrahim Kaliisa, and on Kawempe-Bombo route as well as the Entebbe stretch, cost an additional $2.2 million (Shs4.1b). Investigators, however, said they were unable to ascertain if the patchwork expenses were as much.

A bureaucrat and a private sector employee, who asked not to be named because they are not authorised to speak on behalf of their employers, separately said Hauwei Technologies had offered to repair the damages at no cost. However, some ICT officials allegedly went ahead and picked money from companies accused of damaging the fibre network but instead of using the funds for the repairs, the unnamed bureaucrats pocketed it. It has emerged that three generators - each reportedly worth Shs45 million - bought to power some of the sites were stolen due to alleged lack of proper sheltering and security.

Immediately, it was decided that site equipment, including generators, should be sheltered in permanent, not the prefabricated structures that Huawei Company erected under phase I. Break ups in the national backbone infrastructure, shortly after being laid, appeared to wake up government to the reality of wanting internal capacity – both human and institutional.To address the lapses, the PIU now transformed into the newly-formed but financially-struggling National Information Technology Authority headed by the Executive Director Alex Lutwama, was constituted as a technical arm to advise and run the country’s entire communication infrastructure.

Specialised training

IN CHARGE: Mr Awori

The technocrats, like the MPs, recommended that the contractor halts commencement of works on phase II of the project until the Company rectifies identified anomalies which Dr Saamanya communicated to them on May 27, 2009.

These included installing fully-serviced generators/accessories on sites covered under phase I and technical certification of the quality of cables. Other requirements were for use of 96 core cables under phase II and remedies on previous installations.

Compliance with these provisos, the PIU officials suggested, should be independently confirmed by government-contracted external supervisor(s) before a new phase of the project begins. “As per guidelines from Uganda National Roads Authority, the Ministry of ICT maintains that the cable depth should be a minimum of 1.5 metres as stipulated,” Dr Saamanya wrote.

This was not to be the case and officials say in many ways, the PS appears to have made a U-turn on agreed technical specifications, culminating in the third addendum to the turnkey contract. Daily Monitor has learnt that none of the pre-conditions has been met yet ongoing phase II works, officially denied by ICT officials, have reached far and wide in the countryside - from Kumi in the east, connecting via Gulu town to Elegu Police post at the Uganda/Sudan frontier and to Mbarara/Bushenyi Districts on the western flank. Dr Ham Mulira is optimistic that the infrastructure will function well with proper maintenance.