By Mulengera Reporters
Under the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area (GKMA) project, aimed at delivering paved roads and thereby enhance business competitiveness, lots of money has been made available to accounting officers and other leaders at the various Local Government units. This is the case with several lower-level Local Government units in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area districts of Kampala, Wakiso, Mukono and to an extent Mpigi.
A total of more than Shs596,799,653,502 has been made available to deliver all the GKMA project-related roads in the said districts. The money is from World Bank/IDA and another about $46m from the French Agency for International Development. Before reaching even midway, there are growing concerns that political corruption will diminish the project quality and timely delivery of the contracted works.
Available GoU official literature and internal audit reports, which this news website has reviewed, indicate that political interference by kickback-soliciting politicians has already resulted into so much pressure to the extent that those technical persons entrusted with project funds in the different lower local governments have resorted to non-disclosure and manipulation of the exchange rate (or currency equivalents) at which the project money is converted from dollar to the Ugandan shilling.
Recently, internal audit reports raised a red flag on the inconsistences in the actual funding amounts under the GKMA project, quite often departing from the official government figure as has repeatedly been disclosed by the PSST Ramathan Goobi, in the different official correspondences relating to the project.
Slow uptake of project funds has been a big audit concern for some of the implementing entities or local governments for the 9 months’ period preceding the month of August. Financial reports are seldom submitted on time, which speaks to low levels of corporate governance around project implementation. Naturally, this is something the funding partners have lately been very much concerned about.
What is even of greater concern is the fact that some of the low funds’ absorption rate cases, which the internal auditors have repeatedly flagged, is deliberately caused by project officials because contractors who are reluctant to give cuts on each certificate of completion that gets approved and endorsed for payment, end up not being paid promptly.
Those concerned deliberately sit on the money and delay or refuse to pay as a way of buying time for their power brokers and conduit persons to effectively cow and manipulate the targeted contractor into parting with the demanded cuts. A targeted contractor has to pay the cut in advance before payment relating to the previous completion certificate can be effected.
This is how some of the GKMA-involved agencies end up with audit flags relating to low funds’ absorption, which is actually deliberate and self-inflicted. The contrast is that contractors who are known for being cooperative when it comes to quickly paying out cuts, for each completion certificate, always get paid promptly.
Relatedly, some of the contractors and road construction firms which took out tenders under GKMA are crying and regretting ever getting involved because extortion has become too much. Claiming to be collection agents for the big-name politicians at Ministries in Kampala, project-involved managers at the lower-level LGs are always pestering contractors to pay up colossal sums of money before one gets awarded the contract.
The latest whistle blower petition to the IGG, believed to be orchestrated by people acting for and on behalf of the aggrieved contractors, shows that in many cases, the GKMA project tenders aren’t won by lowest bidders or those with the most responsive/competitive bid documents but by those who accept to, in advance, pay kickback money, which ends up being shared by powerful politicians at the concerned Ministries in Kampala.
In decentralizing GKMA-related procurements, the WB hoped that the same would deliver capacity enhancement for public officials employed at the lower local governments. But the whistle blower informs the IGG that this action by WB has only resulted into decentralization of corruption and extortion by some of the rogue-minded officials involved in GKMA projects. Many such managers at lower LG levels have ended up becoming collection agents and conduits through whom powerful politicians linked to the concerned Ministries access bribes from contractors.
The whistle blower is worried that Ugandans will end up being the ultimate losers because there is no way contractors are going to continue paying cuts at the stage of getting the tender and also at the stage of getting payment for every certificate of completion that gets cashed. The whistle blower is worried that, unless the IGG promptly intervenes, the contractors are going to end up delivering shoddy work and very late.
That the day Balaam Barugahara offers to inquire into GKMA project contractors-related extortionist grievances, the rot he is going to unearth will be greater than what his Works counterpart Fred Byamukama has been unearthing in his Ministry Road projects such as the one of Busega-Mpigi or even Masaka-Kyotera-Mutukula.
The whistle blower, whose petition was copied and has since been received by the CDF Gen MK through his private PLU office based at Nakasero, also talks about the toxic working environment at the GKMA project secretariat in Kampala. That its so hard, if not impossible, for whoever is picked to serve as Project Coordinator to sustainably excel in his or her duties. That there is simply too much interference by the politicians, something which has made it impossible to make prudent decisions relating to financial, procurement management and personnel-hiring.
The whistle blower names one Minister whose son works in the secretariat and another powerful senior Permanent Secretary whose modestly-qualified son also works there. That these two are inadequately experienced/skilled yet they insist on having the last word on everything, including sometimes vetoing the Project Coordinator’s decisions, simply because of who their parents are.
That not very long ago, a Project Coordinator was forced out for merely objecting to being ordering around by these two sons of powerful officials. The Accounting Officer of the Ministry had to search for another Engineer who would play ball and work towards the realization of the powerful politicians’ selfish wishes and desires-without question. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
