Kampala — AS Parliament has started scrutinising the expenditure for the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), The New Vision looks into the procurement process and cost of the road works.

Of the sh370b spent on CHOGM, about sh100b went to road works, according to the Auditor General's office.

CHOGM:How road firms spent sh100b

These included emergency road repairs (The New Vision More here), road rehabilitation and road maintenance.

Road rehabilitation works, which were undertaken in the first half of 2007, involved the resealing of selected roads in Kampala and Entebbe, amounting to nearly 70km. The works ministry used the restricted bidding method and invited bids from seven companies.

Six companies were awarded contracts. However, the original contract sums were far above the estimate of the works ministry's engineer, with some triple the Government estimate.

The contract sums also kept on increasing - some by 134%, without any clearance from PPDA, the procurement body. PPDA needs to approve any increase above 25%. As a result, the road rehabilitation programme, which had been estimated at sh15b, ended up costing almost sh40b.

Also, the price for the same works varied considerably from company to company. Whereas Energo charged 214m for resealing one kilometre of road, Dott Services charged sh1.1b per kilometre - or five times more.

In addition, the quality of the works was doubtful, the Auditor General noted.

An audit carried out by COWI, a private firm, on behalf of the Auditor General on 12 of the 57 roads found that construction materials such as asphalt, sand and stones were less, or of poorer quality, than certified and paid for.

All in all, the Auditor General established that sh1.1b had been overpaid on only one-fifth of the roads audited, and needs to be recovered.

However, recovery of money is not the best solution, he noted, adding that the companies should have rectified the works according to the agreed specifications.

"Addressing some of the shortcomings through recovery of money instead of materials may not address the long term social and economic effects resulting from the deteriorating quality and strength of the roads," said the 2009 report.

"The consultants and the ministry supervising engineers should be made liable for failure to ensure quality assurance."

Energo

Energo was contracted to rehabilitate four roads totalling 39 kilometres. The contract sum was sh6.7b and was later revised to sh8.3b. That was over sh3b above the engineer's estimate.

"PPDA declined to give retrospective authority (for the revised contract sum)," said the Auditor General. As a result, "the variation was irregular".

The COWI auditors carried out a physical audit on one of the four roads resealed by Energo - Entebbe Airport Road.

They found less pre-cast slabs, surface dressing and guard rails than claimed, amounting to a total of sh43m.

Dott Services

Dott Services was awarded the contract for the rehabilitation of two sections of Salaama Road totalling 8km. The original contract sum was sh2.1b, which was later revised to sh5b - an increase of 132%. This means that the final cost was higher than the second bidder, Spencon, which had quoted sh4b for the works.

Again PPDA declined to approve the revised price retrospectively, meaning that the variation was irregular, the Auditor General said.

Dott Services won a second contract for the rehabilitation of three roads in Entebbe, stretching 2.53km. The contract sum of sh1.8b was almost three times the engineer's estimate. This sum was later revised to sh2.8b although it is not clear if additional roads were added.

Even when going by the original contract sum, the works cost sh1.1b per kilometre, double the amount per kilometre of its other contract and five times the amount paid to Energo for the same works.

Stirling

Stirling Civil Engineers in May 2007 won a contract for the rehabilitation of four roads - Kampala Road, Queen's Way, Jinja Road and Mackinon Road - totalling 8km. Its bid of sh3.7b was double the engineer's estimate.

Kampala, Jinja and Mackinon roads had already been repaired under the emergency programme earlier that year. There was a revision for additional works, bringing the total number of roads to 30 and the total contract sum to sh8.7b - an increase by 134%.

As in the previous contracts, PPDA did not approve the variations and revised contract sum.

Only five of the 30 roads were subjected to a physical audit.

The auditors found materials worth sh235m less than paid for. They established that the thickness of the asphalt was 32mm instead of the required 40mm.

The also discovered that ordinary paint, costing sh2,400 per metre, was used for road lines instead of thermoplastic paint, yet the cost of the latter (sh5,500 per metre) was paid.

The audit, carried out in August 2008, nine months after CHOGM, found unfinished works on five roads while no works at all had been carried out on Baker Road.

Cementers

Cementers won the contract for the rehabilitation of five roads, all of whom had been repaired under the emergency programme just months earlier.

The contract sum was sh5.7b, more than double the engineer's estimate, and increased to sh8.5b when works on five more roads were added.

Only two of the 10 roads were audited. Numerous shortcomings were found in the thickness and quantity of asphalt, road markings and steel gratings, amounting to overpayment of sh735m.

Spencon

Spencon won a contract for the resealing of three roads - totalling 3.2km - at sh3.8b. This was almost four times the engineer's estimate of sh1.1b.

Four more roads were added, pushing the final bill to sh4.3b. Only three out of the seven roads were audited, and shortfalls worth sh110m were found.

Mulowooza

Mulowooza and Brothers won the contract for improvement of the Lukuli-Buziga-Munyonyo road - a stretch of 5.3km. It is the only company that charged less than the engineer's estimate and did not increase its contract sum.

However, an audit inspection in January 2008, two months after CHOGM, revealed that almost no work had been done.

The works were only substantially completed at the end of December 2008, a year after CHOGM.

Maintenance works

Additional road maintenance contracts for Nakasero and Kololo areas totalling 48km were awarded to two companies - Spencon and Cementers - at a total cost of sh9.9b.

The maintenance works involved pothole patching and drainage improvement, similar to the works under the emergency repairs.

The Auditor General in his report queried how works on 48km could cost about the same as works on 63km.

"It was unusual to pay sh9.9b to contractors for maintenance of only 48.6km (sh215m per kilometre), yet sh10b was used for emergency repairs of 63 km (sh158m per kilometre)."

Equally, he questioned the difference in the rates for the consultants for the same works.

BMW Consulting Engineers was paid sh275m for supervising pothole patching of 63km under the emergency repairs - or sh4m per kilometre.

In comparison, Prome Consultants was paid sh511m for the same work for 46km - or sh11m per kilometre.

The accounting officer explained that the difference was because of the timeframe of the contracts - four months for the emergency works and 10 months for the maintenance works.

"We, however, observed that despite the explanation, the emergency works actually exceeded the stipulated four-month period," the audit report said.

Most of the maintenance works were not completed by CHOGM, the Auditor General noted. Only 12 out of the 42 roads had been fully done by January 2008, two months after the summit.

Shimoni Grounds

Zzimwe Construction was hired to construct a temporary parking area for cars at Shimoni Grounds at a cost of sh471m for use for one week.

"The procurement was by direct sourcing and the contractor undertook the works without any formal Government contract," the Auditor General noted.

This contravened basic procurement rules. It also complicated monitoring and quality assurance.

"Without any competitive evaluation process, there is little or no basis for justification of the level of costs incurred or quality of the works undertaken," the report said. He added that there was little to show for the amount spent.

Inspection of the parking area in January 2008 showed "a disused piece of land with patches of grass beginning to emerge and isolated murram potholes where tarmac was laid."