Chinese firm in Karuma project scandal ‘deletes’ disputed information
Part of Karuma Falls. Plans to build a hydro power dam on the water body has been marred by bribery claims. Photo by Harriet Anena
What you need to know:
Accusations. China International Water and Electric Corporation reportedly removed information from its website that had been disputed by a whistleblower.
A Chinese company suspected to have bribed the team evaluating bids for the construction of the multimillion shilling 600MW Karuma Dam has dropped some of the ‘controversial’ information from its Website.
It is not clear if it is the publication of the discrepancies or the desire to throw off tract nosing investigators who might want to compare the information with the set of figures the company submitted when bidding for the project, that prompted the company to drop the information.
China International Water and Electric Corporation (CWE) had, until recently indicated that it had constructed Moinak Hydro Power Station in Kazakhstan, with an intake tunnel of 9.2 kilometres, though this information has since been dropped.
CWE did not respond to our telephone calls and an e-mail sent by this paper.
However, Mr Simon D’Ujanga, the State Minister for Energy, said the change would not affect the evaluation of bids.
“The ministry does not go by what is on the websites; company profiles keep changing. Besides, I cannot talk about one company since that would be unfair because the evaluation process is still on-going,” he told Saturday Monitor.
According to Citizens Coalition against Corruption, an NGO, CWE might have ‘tweaked’ the figures to correspond with the experience requirements for the Karuma Hydro Power Station Project. The procurement process of a company to construct the Karuma hydropower station has been marred by allegations of corruption and bribery.
The construction of the dam is expected to start in June.
President Museveni a fortnight ago instituted a team to investigate bribery allegations.
At the centre of the current investigations is a whistle-blower’s allegation that members of a government 12-person bid evaluation committee accepted bribes to allow a bid by a Chinese firm to proceed to the pre-qualification stage – just a step away from winning the contract for construction of the dam.
This, the whistlebowers say, were against queries about its ability to execute the works.
Investigations on
The investigations will also establish how the evaluation committee, mainly composed of government officials, could have failed to uncover discrepancies in the facts reported by the firm.
Karuma is one of the critical hydropower projects aimed at solving Uganda’s protracted power crisis that has had operations of several industries, business and homes affected or slowed.
Power demand, that currently stands at 455MW against a supply of 350MW, is growing at nine per cent annually.
Sector experts say the completion of the 250MW Bujagali plant will easy the situation for three years.
Mr Hilary Onek, the former minister of Energy, while appearing before an Ad hoc Committee of Parliament on energy, had warned that the Karuma could turn out to be as poorly executed as the Bujagali hydro power project.
