Contractor struggles to finish Shs34b projects

Leaders of Mbarara City and Ntungamo Municipality have expressed worry over the delayed completion of two infrastructure projects in the two local governments.

The road projects, valued at Shs34 billion, are under the Uganda Support for Municipal Development (USMID) programme, which is funded by the World Bank.

Mbarara City and Ntungamo Municipality contracted Multiplex Limited and Ditaco International Trade and Contracting in a joint venture to rehabilitate Major Victor Bwana Road (0.95km), Galt Road (0.63km) and Stanley Road (0.78km) in Mbarara City at a tune of Shs23b. Those in Ntungamo Municipality are Kajinya Road (1.37km) and Tindibakira Road (0.7km), both costing Shs11b under cluster 6.

The rehabilitation of the roads was expected to last for a year from May 26, 2021, to May 25, 2022, but the contractor is yet to complete the works.

This has heightened anxiety among the political and civil leaders in the two local governments that the contractor will not hand over the roads before the project is closed by the end of June.

While meeting the Deputy Inspector General of Government, Ms Patricia Achan Okiria, on Monday, the leaders, who included Ntungamo Municipal Development Forum (MDF) president, Mr Joshua Kansiime, said Multiplex has been given enough time to complete the roads but has failed.

“Even if you give him (contractor) a whole year from now, he will not complete the project. I want to tell you frankly getting a bad contractor is like marrying a difficult woman, you will never develop,” he said.

Mr Kansiime said the municipality offered enough support to the contractor to ensure that he finishes on time but he (contractor) lacks capacity.

Ntungamo Municipal Town Clerk Isiah Tumwesigye  said the contractor has been given four extensions, the last being of January 31.

“Our worry is that the government engaged the World Bank, who is the funder of the project, to extend the project till June 30. This means if by June 30, the works are not yet done, the money will return to the World Bank and us as the municipality, we will have no money to pay the contractor,” he said.

Mr Tumwesigye asked the government to blacklist contractors that are consistently failing their obligations because it leads to loss of taxpayers money.

“Giving many contracts to one inefficient contractor is a real disservice in providing services to the people of Uganda,” he said.

The Ntungamo Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Geoffrey Mucunguzi, said the government needs to learn from past mistakes and stop using methods that have failed.

Money lost

“In this contract, Ntungamo Municipality has lost large sums of money because of delays. The centre should change in the way of giving contracts, this issue of cluster is a boomerang and is failing our projects,” he said.

Mbarara Resident City Commissioner James Mwesigye  said the contractor has been a nightmare to the  residents because of delays, which affect businesses.

“This should become a lesson to us but we need to accept when we go wrong. Giving a contract to someone who cannot manage was a mistake,” he said.

Mr Mwesigye cited collusion in awarding the contract, which needs to be investigated.

“We need to sensitise contractors to resist giving out money while getting contracts but when we report, the IGG asks for evidence but it is difficult to have evidence because the giver is willing and the taker is more willing,” he said.

The Multiplex Limited General Manager, Mr Sam Sserunkuma, said they were given a contract knowing that they had capacity but the cluster project was bigger than their capacity as a company.

“We are not intentionally skipping the deadlines but this is a cluster and the same contractor in the three local governments of Mbarara City, Ntungamo Municipality and Kabale Municipality. By the time we were given the contract, we were deemed to have the capacity but we are using the same equipment working in the three entities,” he said.

The Deputy IGG said delays in service delivery create an environment that is ripe for corruption, which paints a bad picture of the government.

“So I want them to make sure that they complete the project to full capacity. I would like to see commitment on the side of the contractor that by the end of June this project will have been delivered,” she added.

Ms Achan said the remaining works on the project would be completed within two months if the contractor committed himself to the work.

“Mbarara city is at 85 percent and in Ntungamo the completion is at 75 percent. I am going to summon the contractor and USMID officials to my office so that we agree on the deliverables,” she said.

STAKEHOLDERS SPEAK

Isiah Tumwesigye, Ntungamo Municipal Town Clerk: “Our worry is that the government engaged the World Bank, who is the funder of the project, to extend the project till June 30. This means if by June 30, the works are not yet done, the money will return to the World Bank and us as the municipality, we will have no money to pay the contractor.”

Ms Patricia Achan Okiria, Deputy IGG: “People out there are looking at the government delivering on its priorities but once there is a delay, then it changes perception. Delays impact the perception of citizens because they will say this has been delayed because people have eaten money,”

[email protected]