By Our Reporters
This news website has obtained new information showing ways in which the ineptness of officials in President Museveni’s government (mainly UNRA, Works & the Finance Ministry) have frustrated the European Union (EU) regarding the completion of phase 2 of the 21kms Kampala Northern bypass road. Sometime in the early 2010s, the EU which funded phase I of the same bypass road (costing Euros 52.2m/Shs221bn) reached out to the GoU offering a grant (initially of Euros 40m/Shs170bn) for the expansion phase turning the bypass into a four carriage road. The additional counterpart funding (initially of Euros 7.2m/Shs30bn) would be provided by the GoU which had to borrow from European Investment Bank.
M7 GoU LETS DOWN EU;
The GoU had the obligation to sort out all the compensation issues and provide the contractor (Motal Engil) with well secured access to the road project site which (largely because of UNRA ineptness and possible connivance) wasn’t done in a timely manner. Instead the relocation of Project Affected Persons has taken forever to be completed. Just imagine the process has been on since 2014 and remains incomplete (only 51% done) partly because some affected persons acted shady, lodged fraudulent claims and even took government to court challenging the figure that was being offered. Some had been alerted by UNRA insiders to speculatively erect posh houses in the corridor the expansion project was supposed to pass. In the end, such people have ended up making very outrageous claims, a thing that has delayed the process. Lack of access has delayed construction which was supposed to last three years (July 2014-July 2017) and this subsequently has caused the overall cost to skyrocket from Euros 45m to over Euros 176m because of prolongation costs demanded by COWI (the supervision consultant) and Motal Engil (the contractor). This frustration or failure by the GoU to sort out compensation made the EU feel frustrated and consequently declined GoU request for additional funding. Having hit a dead end, the GoU has had to pay for the UNRA incompetence by having to find the additional funding that is required and this is at the expense of the taxpayer who will have to meet the additional cost. “We approached our partners the EU for additional funding and they refused because they had done their part of the bargain already with the original grant and we were told there is no way the European taxpayers’ money can be used to pay for the incompetence of the Ugandan officials,” says a finance ministry official. “The EU is also concerned that Motal Engil, which is one of the best road construction firms in Europe, is having its image destroyed by local politicians like MP Kasule Sebunya yet it’s the GoU officials to blame.” In a phone interview with this news website, Sebunya maintained that Motal Engil’s ineptness can’t be blamed on the GoU “because even sections of the road that have no compensation issues haven’t been worked on.” But sources in the EU (defensive of Motal Engil) maintained that the GoU further let down the European Union and the contractor by not sufficiently investing in clearing the drainage along the affected areas as indicated in the original understanding. “A lot of time has had to be lost because of the complicated nature of the swamps along that area and court injunctions too have been many and these are mostly secured against the contractor by sham affected persons who sometimes are proxies of people in GoU,” said one of the sources we spoke to. “Kindly it’s improper to put blame on the contractor in order to cover up for your Uganda government ineptness and lack of seriousness.” It was ideally expected that the GoU would use administrative avenues to speak to the Chief Justice Bart Katureebe to make sure the judicial officers in the relevant courts give priority to cases and land disputes relating to the northern bypass road. “That would have saved time but the GoU never acted for all these years and that’s how so much time has been lost. The road was to be commissioned by July 2017 and it has now had to be pushed to 2021 because of the GoU ineptness and you really can’t blame that on the contractor,” said a source clearly sympathetic to Motal Engil. In some cases (the prolonged process has revealed that) UNRA compensated wrong people only for the right ones to subsequently show up to secure court injunctions against the contractor. “In some cases people were compensated claiming to be the next of kin of the rightful owners. The rightful owners returned saying I never appointed so and so to represent me in this matter and fresh compensation demands had to be made and that’s how the cost has skyrocketed.” Sources further disclosed that the EU is lately relaxed having been assured by UNRA that compensation-related disputes in court will soon be concluded to enable the contractor to race on. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
