By Our Reporters
MPs and local leaders in areas affected by the ongoing expansion of the 23km Northern Bypass (Bweyogerere-Busega) have predicted spontaneous citizen riots targeting Motal Engil, the obscure Portuguese road construction firm whose ineptness has clearly been exposed in the way the completion of expansion works has unduly been prolonged. The 23km stretch covers Semujju Nganda’s Kiira Municipality, parts of Mike Kabaziguruka’s Nakawa, Mubarak Munyagwa’s Kawempe South and Kasule Sebunya’s Nansana Municipality (Lubigi). In 2014, Motal Engil was contracted by UNRA to expand the bypass by constructing the second lane equally stretching 23kms. The job was to be completed in 30 months (roughly 3 years) but it has dragged on up to this day. The original contract stipulations meant the job had to be completed latest in 2017. And very recently the UNRA management was cajoled to revise the contract and extend the expected completion date to 2021. “That makes it 7 years of Ugandans suffering because of the incompetence of Motal Engil which we blame the works ministry for hiring because they didn’t have prior experience doing a job of similar specifications. The job must have overwhelmed them and our people are suffering. The flooding problem in Lubigi has escalated and all this is because of the delays in doing the work,” fumes Kasule Sebunya. “Our people originally had accepted the inconvenience and agreed to pay the price in return for a good road that would result into development but the guys have let us down by doing the road forever.”
EUROS 67M B’MES EUROS 175M;
The expansion was to originally being funded with a Euros 67m grant from European Union. The delay by Motal Engil to deliver the job on time has resulting into the project costs skyrocketing three times whereby it’s now at Euros 175m. NRM’s MP Kasule says the additional Euros 108m will have to be paid by the tax payers in prolongation costs because of Motal Engil’s ineptness. He says he is mobilizing fellow MPs to grill works Minister Monica Azuba and to also task the Finance Ministry not to pay the additional Euros 108m which the contractor is demanding in prolongation costs. He says lives have been lost and people’s livelihoods destroyed and the Minister Azuba will soon be compelled to explain. He says the other option on table is to have a parliamentary resolution condemning Motal Engil and directing government entities not to give it business again “because of the way they have messed that road.” We separately learnt that the EU has been uncomfortable meeting any further expenses beyond the Euros 67m they had originally committed. This means the Finance Ministry (GoU) will have to find the additional Euros 108m which the MPs and other elected leaders say should be visited on the contractor because the delay has been due to his ineptness. Kasule says once the aggrieved MPs are done mobilizing colleagues, its unlikely UNRA management will survive the BoU-like inquiry because there are known factors that guide prudent project designing right from inception of any project. The project must be economically viable, funding must be available in the budget and the project must be executable within reasonable time. “Opting to expand the project scope after designing is always a red flag for either corruption or incompetent practices. One of these two must be the case with UNRA in this case,” says one of the elected leaders in the affected places where the 23km project passes. “Consequently if the EU knew the cost would be Euros 175m [as opposed Euros 67m], the project wouldn’t have been undertaken because return on investment would be too low. Once time is lost, the financial benefit is lost.” The same leader with vast knowledge in procurement and road construction added that if indeed the problem is that of poor design, UNRA should penalize the designing consultant (Mott McDonald) by cashing his Professional Indemnity. The challenge is that for the client/employer to do this, you have to prove extraordinary circumstances including showing that you are without fault. Yet proving that the design work was done poorly isn’t something the current UNRA leadership can easily prove against a smart entity like Mott McDonald. “Once the cost becomes three times higher than the original price, then the project ceases to be viable,” says one of the sector knowledgeable sources we spoke to. “There are other priority areas of interventions where EU’s Euros 67m would have been invested in 2013/14 if there was awareness this is how Motal Engil was going to mess up things.”
KAWEMPE MAYOR SPEAKS OUT;
Kawempe Mayor Emmanuel Serunjogi echoes Sebunya’s concerns regarding the social problems Motal Engil’s ineptness has created for the community he leads. He says as part of preparations to commence the works, the drainage systems in the area were interfered with and the problem of floods has since escalated. He says “all the people who have died since are blamed on Motal Engil for being such an incompetent contractor.” Serunjogi says “the road would be okay but it has taken too long and that contractor is extremely indifferent to the community.” He says in places like Kalerwe, Kawempe and parts of Kamwokya, his voters are suffering “because the entire place was opened up and no barriers were put increasing people’s vulnerability to accidents.” He says at Kalerwe, market vendors were displaced and their former market space was opened up and abandoned forcing the rest of the public to turn it into a dumping ground for garbage. “The entire place now emits a very bad stench which often causes people to get infected. It’s politically costly to us as elected leaders because the foul smell makes us appear as if we are negligent regarding garbage collection yet the problem is created by Motal Engil and their UNRA which employed them,” he says. “My people expected flyovers which never came and now accidents are rampant because people have to move on a highly exposed highway and all this loss of life and property is blamed on Motal Engil for being a very insensitive contractor.” He says the area residents became even more resentful towards the contractor when he and Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago where slapped with criminal charges because they organized a rally at Kalerwe where they condemned the contractor’s ineptness. Serunjogi says having realized the arrogance of Motal Engil, he resorted to directly writing to UNRA but none of his many letters has ever been replied to. He says area residents are very angry at the rampant loss of life and property resulting from flooding due to Engil’s indifference and “anytime soon spontaneous riots will break out to denounce UNRA, the contractor and consultant.” As we interviewed him, a young man who serves as youth leader in Kawempe division passed by and Serunjogi prompted him to say something. “Motal Engil is the worst contractor to ever do work in Kawempe because the youths haven’t benefited at all, nothing like casual jobs and they don’t seem to have any formal way to work with the community. Ordinarily youth would expect jobs but no such benefits have come their way. We don’t even know much about that contractor because they never open up to anyone,” the youth leader said adding he would be surprised if a riot doesn’t break out soon protesting the way the contractor has messed up the project and thereby complicating the ordinary poor people’s lives. Sebunya says as MPs, they have powers which they are going to use to prevent the Finance Ministry from spending the additional Euros 108m until “a more reasonable and experienced contractor is found.” He says the least they will be demanding for once the minister is compelled to come to Parliament to explain, will be the immediate replacement of the contractor because Engil’s ineptness can’t be tolerated anymore.
HURTING EBBE EXPRESSWAY;
Kasule, who for long chaired the Parliamentary committee that supervises the finance ministry, says Motal Engil’s ineptness has also messed up the Entebbe Express Highway by frustrating the original objective for which it was constructed. He says the idea was to decongest traffic in the greater Kampala area whereby traffic from the Expressway would ease into the expanded bypass and vice versa. “All this is now a pipe dream because Motal Engil has failed to do the work to Busega to have the connection to the Entebbe Express way. The benefit for which the expressway was invested in can now not be realized and who is that one contractor to hold everybody at ransom?” Kasule says because GoU had 15 years (2010-2025) with which to collect toll fees from the motorists and repay the Chinese loan of $476m, which hasn’t happened so far, the viability of the Expressway is now in total jeopardy. “We can’t pay back the loan on time because the toll fees can’t be levied on an incomplete Expressway without that part of Busega being functional as per the original plan. It simply means repayment will delay and the Chinese will charge much more for that delay. Why should the Ugandan taxpayers suffer so much because of one single contractor from Portugal?” Kasule wondered sounding unusually angry. He wants GoU to pass on the additional interest/money the Chinese will be claiming for delayed repayment onto Motal Engil because the resultant default in repaying the Chinese loan is an outcome of their (Engil) ineptness as contractors.
EU FRUSTRATED;
This news website is reliably informed there is as much concern among the top officials at the EU Kampala office and Matia Kasaijja’s finance ministry is organizing a reach out activity to take the EU diplomats to the ground to understand what exactly is happening. This will be used as a fact finding mission to verify the long sticking compensation claims Motal Engil claims have delayed the work. Such challenges are said to be halting works at Busega, Sentema interchange point, Kyebando neighborhood, Ntinda round about and Lubigi. Informed sources say given the political importance of the bypass road, the NRM MPs could be mobilized to gang up on Motal Engil and make them pay for the very costly delays for which no justification can ever be given. Kasule says whistle blowers warned against Motal Engil (saying it lacked adequate experience and capabilities) as early as 2013 but officials at the Finance Ministry and UNRA kept deaf ear. More about this whistle blower information in our subsequent coverage. For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755.
