14 May 2008
Kampala — President Yoweri Museveni wrote his now controversial anti-corruption letter after receiving a brief showing that officials, especially in the road sector, could be conniving with contractors to inflate tender award costs.
The Ugandan road sector is publicly known to be in shambles, amidst very high construction costs, poor workmanship by several contractors and uncollected donor funds.
In his May 4 letter to the Prime Minister, Prof. Apolo Nsibambi, copied to all members of Parliament, Mr Museveni noted that inflation of road construction costs was "unacceptable robbery", citing cases where the cost of making one kilometre is inflated as much as four times.
The President also cited corruption in tarmacking of roads in municipalities, construction of valley dams and classrooms.
Works in the spotlight
Information obtained from figures of road tender awards by the Ministry of Works since 2000, indicates that the cost of doing one kilometre of road had shot up from an average $250,000 (approx. Shs420 million) in 2000 to over $880,000 (approx. Shs1.5 billion).
Daily Monitor has seen a copy of the brief, which was sent to the President last year, which analysed contract prices for 14 roads awarded by the Road Agency Formation Unit (Rafu), under the Ministry of Works from the year 2000-2006.
According to the figures analysed for the President, in 2000, for example -the cost the 54Km-Pakwach-Nebbi Road was $234,000 per kilometre, and that of the 76Km-Nebbi-Arua Road was $333,000 per kilometer. But the figures have tripled since 2006.
For example, SBI International is constructing the 98Km-Kabale-Kisoro Road, at a cost $819,000 per kilometre.
Rafu, also in 2006, awarded the 43Km-Kampala-Zirobwe Road tender to Serbian company - Energo Projekt, at a whopping $880,000 per kilometer.
The under fire roads agency also awarded the 123-Km Soroti-Dokolo-Lira Road tender at $792,000 per kilometre (for Dokolo-Lira section) and $644,000 per kilometre for Soroti-Dokolo section to Chinese company, China Road and Bridge.
The brief to the President noted that the contract award figures differed sharply with estimates of external consulting engineers hired by the ministry and noted that the government in the worst case scenario could have saved $20 million for the three projects, if the tendering process had been transparent.
For example, while consultants - PKS Group of South Africa estimated the Kabale-Kisoro Road construction to cost $36 million (approx. Shs65billion); Rafu later contracted it out at a cost of $80 million (approx.
Shs147 billion). This means that the government is paying Shs82 billion more than the consultant's estimates.
The accompanying analysis for the brief handed over to the President also notes that another consultant - Gauff Engineering Ltd had estimated the cost of Soroti-Dokolo-Lira Road at $ 47million (approx. Shs85 billion) but Rafu handed over the tender to China Road & Bridge at $88 million (approx. Shs160 billion).
This also means that the road will be done at Shs75 billion more than the consultant's estimates. The ministry paid more than Shs5billion to each consultant for advice that was never used.
The brief, which Daily Monitor learnt was analysed by a highly qualified roads engineer prompted President Museveni around March last year to write to Works and Transport Minister John Nasasira to investigate.
Mr Nasasira, who has been works minister for most of Museveni's rule, reportedly asked Rafu who wrote back to the President mid-last year indicating that the international price indices have shown that the cost of diesel fuel as well as petroleum products have more than doubled in the last three years.
"General cost increase of recent road construction works in Africa varies from +67 per cent to 124 per cent for time lapses of two to four years. The unit costs for Kabale-Kisoro-Bunagana/Kyanika Road and Jinja-Bugiri Road are within the average for the region.
The price of $814,000 per km for the Kabale-Kisoro-Bunagana/Kyanika Road is also comparable with the price of $708,000 per km for the rehabilitation of the Jinja-Bugiri Road of which 11.5km out of 72km are dual carriageways," Rafu explained in the letter to the President.
"The cost for Kabale-Kisoro-Bunagana/Kyanika Road is broadly similar to costs of similar projects in countries with the same terrain like Rwanda and Lesotho.
Construction in Africa for selected contract values for heavy rehabilitation or upgrading from gravel to bitumen standard for two lane medium trafficked roads that have similar characteristics as the project road and mostly situated in land locked countries have been compared.
The average unit cost for asphalt concrete paved road is US$ 780,000 per km for Rwanda and Lesotho," Rafu replied.
President Museveni was reportedly not impressed by the explanation and reportedly asked for changes at Rafu which is being turned into the National Roads Authority.
As a result, Mr Peter Ssebanakita, was last year appointed as new executive director for the roads authority replacing Mr Francis Magambe Byaruhanga, under whose stewardship, the 14 projects were awarded.
Mr Ssebanakita, 51, has a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Makerere University.
He graduated in 1979. He also holds a Masters degree in Highway Engineering from the University of Birmingham and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Liverpool.
When Daily Monitor sought out Works Minister John Nasasira to comment, he said the President's letter was about roads under the Ministry of Local Government.
Local Government Minister Kahinda Otafiire could not be reached as his phone was off but the Permanent Secretary, Mr Vincent Ssekono distanced his ministry claiming under decentralisation, the roads are under local governments (districts) but not the ministry.
However, the local governments fall under the Ministry of Local Government.
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