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Wakiso is worst
Wakiso District is another named case.
In one case in the 2016/17 FY, it awarded a contract for works on two roads; the Seguku-Kasenge-Buddo (10 Km) and Lubowa Quality Super market Hill view close (2.1km) roads, but the tax payer lost Shs5.3 billion or 25% of it. The winning contractor took Shs15.2 billion when another firm offered to do the work for Shs.9.9 billion.
The contract evaluation team eliminated the lowest bidder on a technicality – not attaching signed agreement forms and certificates of completion of the works in their schedule of general experience, even if the same bidder had attached verification letters from the Ministry of works and Transport, and Uganda Investment Authority, showing that the firm had successfully done similar works.
But the same team happily accepted a bid which did not meet the financial performance required of an average turnover of Shs20 billion for the last three years. The awarded bidder had done small jobs averaging turnover of Shs.14 billion far below the other bidders with average turnover of Shs41.8 billion and Shs2 trillion respectively. The evaluation committee claimed noncompliance on financial performance criteria by all participants.
The AG noted that this deliberate override of regulations by the evaluation and contracts committees, gave an unfair advantage to the awarded firm leading to unfair competition and apparent overspending of Shs.5.3 billion. This override of regulations also made Wakiso District the worst performer across the country as far as procurement anomalies are concerned.
In Masaka, contract managers did not bother to prepare the implementation plans on file for a Shs539 million contract and in neighboring Mityana, a review of procurement files worth Shs559 million revealed that they wrongfully maintained the same evaluation committee across several bids with limited representation of the user departments.
Lamwo district lost Shs22 million over rehabilitation of the 5km Kirombe-Kal Road. The scope of work included grading, drainage, full gravelling, and completion of works at an estimated cost of Shs133 million under the Peace Recovery and Development Plan (PRDP) funding. The road was adjusted to 7.3km without authorisation and approval from Contracts Committee and 2km out of the 7.3km was not graveled. Although Shs128 million, representing 97% of the estimated cost, had already been paid to the suppliers of culverts and gravel and to the Force Account manager, the works were incomplete. Culverts purportedly installed worth Shs24 million and two project sign posts costing Shs.1.6 million had not been installed by the time of audit inspection in June last year. Despite this, the AG says, a progress report by the Lamwo engineering department indicated the project as completed 5km at Shs.133 million contrary to the actual status of the road and actual payment.
Experts explain
Zombo’s new CAO, Onzu, blames lack of capacity of contractors and unending administrative reviews for the procurement breaches at the district local government level.
“No one wants to lose a contract,” he told The Independent, “So you have cases where people petition and call for an administrative review whether they have lost wrongly or rightly and once this happens, the entire process is halted; then investigations start, and sometimes all this is simply because the loser wants the winner to also lose business.”
He added; “Then you have contractors who on face value appear genuine and capable but once they are awarded a contract they start rushing to find a loan. They cannot deliver on time, and then a dispute arises”.
Raphael Magyezi, the Chairperson Public Service and Local Government, says the local government procurement law is to blame and needs to be reviewed and the skill sets of local government procurement committees to manage contracts improved. He says cases of suspected outright corruption are more complicated to deal with.
“We need to investigate these anomalies and what causes them before we try prescribing solutions,” Magyezi says.
According Jonas Mbabazi of ACODE, contracts are not managed in a manner that is result oriented.
“In most of these cases you find that contractors are not supervised,” he told The Independent, “Civil works do not reflect what is agreed in the contracts. There is also connivance between contractors and district officials. You find that the road distance is not the same as agreed upon in the contracts but a certificate of completion has been delivered.”
Citing the AG’s report of 2014/2015, which revealed serious understaffing levels in local governments, Mbabazi says that internal audit departments and Public Accounts Committees at the local government level should be empowered to investigate and monitor and to take remedial actions to be able to control and reduce some of these anomalies.
Even Roland Mugume, a member of the Local Government Accounts Committee acknowledges that the anomalies are a result of many things ranging from the poor calibre of civil servants, pressure from politicians and delay of releases and lack of political supervision.
He says that sometimes civil servants at the centre connive with those at the local government level. Forinstance, he cites a case in Kiruhura, where he claims Shs.4 billion was released instead of Shs2 billion.
“It wouldn’t have been exposed if it hadn’t been for a whistle blower,” he said, “That is why we need to strengthen anti-corruption agencies like the Auditor General and Inspectorate of Government (IGG) and also establish independent institutions at the local government level to oversee service delivery.”
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editor@independent.co.ug
