Punish culprits in Apac building fiasco

Workers reconstruct the foundation of Apac municipal administration block on February 22, after the earlier one was demolished due to poor design. PHOTO | SANTO OJOK

What you need to know:

  • The issue: Taxpayers
  • Our view:  All the culprits responsible for the project mess that caused this financial loss to government due to either negligence, abuse of office or sheer corrupt acts should be held accountable. The new municipal administration should follow them up and have them prosecuted...

Government has lost Shs165m in a bogus foundation for Apac Municipal Administration Block after the contractor deviated from the original project design plan. The planned block was meant to be non-storeyed, but the plan was later arbitrarily converted into a storey building.

The municipal council wasted Shs165m on construction of a fake foundation, which has now been demolished after discovering it cannot carry a storey building. The incurable defects were discovered by a consultant hired by the municipal council to assess the quality and capacity of the foundation. 

It is alleged that the contractor deviated from the original design plan due to community pressure. But how can this happen? It is unbelievable how a contractor can abandon a technical design of a building for a plan dictated by lay community residents. 

Besides, the building materials used were found to be of poor quality, meaning that even if the contractor did not abandon the project design, it would still be shoddy work.

After wasting Shs165m on a bogus foundation, government or taxpayers lost another unspecified amount of good money in hiring a consultant who discovered the defects. Then another money was lost on demolishing the foundation. All these losses were occasioned by negligence and recklessness of the people responsible for the project and should be held accountable for their actions or omissions. 

The municipal engineer is obliged to supervise the contractor and ensure compliance with the building plan. Where was he when the contractor was messing up the foundation? Where was the administration and political leadership of the municipality who are supposed to monitor government projects to ensure service delivery and value for money?

The municipality is rebuilding the foundation, meaning the Sh165m went to waste but the culprits are moving freely with impunity. All we hear is that the culpable municipal engineer was simply replaced. The municipality just cancelled the contract without holding the contractor to account for the lost money.   

All the culprits responsible for the project mess that caused this financial loss to government due to either negligence, abuse of office or sheer corrupt acts should be held accountable. The new municipal administration should follow them up and have them prosecuted to deter others from wasting taxpayers’ money. Each party must be held accountable to the extent of their culpability.