Councillors want probe into ongoing roadworks
Busy. Engineers lay concrete on Mbaguta Street Road on Tuesday. The project is funded by the World Bank (WB) Uganda Support to Municipalities Infrastructure Development (USMID) Batch II. PHOTO BY FELIX AINEBYOONA
Mbarara.
A section of councillors at Mbarara Municipal Council have alleged poor roadworks in the ongoing reconstruction of Bucunku, Mbaguta and Bishop Wills road. They want government to investigate the execution of the project.
The project is funded by the World Bank (WB) Uganda Support to Municipalities Infrastructure Development (USMID) Batch II.
The councillors claim the contractor is doing substandard work under the watch of the technocrats. The roads are in the town centre and cover 1.8 kilometres.
They also want investigations into the procurement process and award of contract, which they claim was done in contravention of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Authority (PPDA) Act.
They say Abubaker Technical Services was given the contract at Shs15.7 billion yet Second Chinese Construction Company Ltd had offered to do the work at Shs13.8 billion.
Mr Shaffiq Kagiiko, the LC4 councillor for Katete Ward, on January 2 wrote to the mayor over the alleged shoddy work.
“The ongoing works by Abubakar Technical Services Ltd is quite superficial, making many of us worried and suspicious of its quality assurance,” Mr Kagiiko’s letter reads in part.
The letter is copied to, among others, the Office of the Prime Minister, the area MP, LC5 chairman, Resident District Commissioner and Inspector General of Government.
The scope of the ongoing reconstruction is expected to include drainage works, earth works, natural gravel sub-base, crushed stone base, premix asphalt wearing course, construction of sidewalks, and auxiliary roadworks including street lights.
“However, the scale of excavation and numerous layers done previously in Batch I is today absent or done quite slightly in sideways whereas old road tarmac portions are merely covered up with murram soil to have the dilapidated road maintained in quite cosmetic manner,” Mr Kagiiko says.
He reminds the mayor, Mr Robert Mugabe Kakyebezi, that they have in the past written to him letters about the process of contract awards and bids for USMID Batch II which was ‘flawed, defective and quite inconsistent with the laws of the contracts and PPDA Act.’
“Although negotiation was recommended by the Contracts Committee due to the contractor being very expensive at Shs15.7 billion compared to the reserve price of Shs13.7 billion, this was ignored by unscrupulous municipal council official. Their focus was on kickbacks from the entire resource envelop of more than Shs18 billion. They called it a blessing in disguise as government scrapped the VAT element just in course of contract negotiation. Thus the more than Shs2 billion initially meant for VAT has never been explained,” he says.
Mr Kagiiko says that USMID funds should not be taken for granted because there are many areas which are not benefiting from this money. Substandard work and corruption, he says, should not be tolerated because of Ugandans who have to pay back the loan.
Not happy
The LC4 councillor for Kicwamba Ward, Mr Godfrey Tumusiime, says they are neither happy nor satisfied with the work being done and that this calls for intervention of the mayor and other stakeholders.
But Mr Kakyebezi says the contract was given following the law and the works are being supervised by technical people. He adds that it is difficult for non-technical people to assess the quality of such a project.
The Town Clerk, Mr Edward Lwanga, says there were three bidders: Nicontra, Second Chinese Construction Company Ltd and Abubaker Technical Services. Only Abubaker Technical Services was qualifying.
“Nicontra could not qualify because their experience is only with murram roads, and for the Chinese Company, their powers of attorney had expired,” Mr Lwanga says.
The managing director of Kagga and Partners, who are the project consultant, Mr Peter Magambo, said: “We have confidentiality requirement in the contract. To discuss anything with the media, we must have permission from the Town Clerk.”
Also Mr Joseph Musoke, the technical director of Abubaker Technical Services says: “The best person to answer anything should be the client and the consultant. I cannot be the worker and then a judge for the work. We have a name to protect. We carry out works according to the design and we execute according to the specifications. We have always performed beyond expectation.”
