PPDA cancels Shs200b Parliament chamber, BoU land purchase
Cornelia Sabiiti, the PPDA head
KAMPALA- The Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) has cancelled the tendering process for the proposed construction of a new chamber for Parliament, citing irregularities in the procurement process.
The procurement authority, also cancelled Bank of Uganda’s Shs10.5b land deal previously awarded to former Kyamuswa MP Tim Lwanga for a piece of land at Plot 5 Serunkuma Road Mbuya for the planned construction of Governor’s residence.
PPDA executive director Cornelias Sabiiti on July 21 wrote to the Inspector General of Government, Ms Irene Mulyagonja, who had requested her on June 6 to investigate the allegations of irregularities in the procurement process, recommending the cancellation of the contract.
“The current procurement process should be cancelled due to inadequacy of the bidding documents in respect to the requirement of annual average turnover and non-application of mandatory margin of preference,” Ms Sabiiti said.
The second reason PPDA gave for the cancellation of the chamber deal was the irregular change of the cost estimate without the approval of the accounting officer after bids had been submitted and bid prices read out. PPDA also cited irregularities in the conduct of evaluation process.
Ms Sabiiti has advised the authorities in Parliament to consider “re-tendering using emergency procurement process which do not exclude the use of competition to ensure value for money.”
Last week, Daily Monitor reported that the tender for the procurement of the proposed new chambers of Parliament had been thrown back into controversy, after a whistle-blower wrote to the IGG, claiming collusion between the PPDA and officials handling the procurement at Parliament.
It was this petition that prompted the cancelation of the contract.
Although the Clerk to Parliament, Ms Jane Kibirige, was unavailable for comment, Mr Peter Ogwang, one of the Commissioners, said he was not aware of the cancellation by PPDA.
BoU’s Shs10b land deal
Ms Sabiiti, in a letter dated July 22, also instructed Bank of Uganda authorities to re-tender the deal and obtain indicative valuation of the land in the preferred areas for construction.
The procurement body also ordered BoU to obtain a current market assessment prior to the commencement of the procurement process.
In her letter, Ms Sabiiti made a reference to a complaint to IGG filed on June 21, in which the petitioner complained that the procurement of the land in question was delayed for over one year and that the award price of Shs10.5 billion was extravagant.
Although one of the bidders had applied for an administrative review, the complainant informed the IGG that the queries raised were not responded to.
According to PPDA, the first valuation report by the Chief Government Valuer indicated that the value of the land was Shs11b. However, on request for further clarification by the contracts committee, the Chief Government Valuer stated that the value of the land was Shs7b, while the value of the building/structure on the land was Shs4b.
This, according to PPDA, raises value for money concern since the objective stated by BoU was to construct a residence for the Governor which will result in the demolition of existing structure.
