The Truth about Karuma, Isimba mess

Isabalija’s team also succeeded in convincing the Finance Ministry to release funds for them, with approval from PPDA, to procure expert supervisors. In December 2015, UEGCL hired AF Consults and SMEC who unearthed some of the alleged shoddy work. Irked by the move, Energy Ministry officials leaked documents to some legislators and the press indicating that UEGCL was hiring experts for a job that was already being done by another company, Energy Infratech.

Part of the problem is that SMEC had initially bid to be the lead supervisors but officials at the Energy Ministry picked Energy Infratech. For some, competition amongst these firms, with each trying to undermine the other has also jeopardised the project.  But for UEGCL, it is these two firms who even brought on board a panel of experts, that have helped them unearth major shortfalls at the sites.

Armed with AF Consult and SMEC evidence and that of another independent audit firm, Mutikanga wrote to Mubiru about these concerns.

In a letter dated March 10 2016, Mubiru sternly cautioned Mutikanga to back off. Mubiru reminded Mutikanga that as accounting officer, he was not accountable to Mutikanga and does not get instructions from him. Mubiru also raised issues with Mutikanga over his working style.

Mubiru wrote: “My observation is that you simply write too many letters most of them designed in an alarmist tone and circulate them as widely as possible without, perhaps, pausing to internalise the possible impact of what you are disseminating. When you circulate these to the Board or to the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury or the Permanent Secretary (Energy Ministry), what do you want them to do? Do you want them to do your job? What is the role of the Manager of UEGCL?”

Most critically, Mubiru reminded Mutikanga that since the Energy ministry procured both the contractors and the supervisors, a situation that is irreversible, they had the overall responsibility (100 %) for delivering these projects.

As he signed out, Mubiru warned that Uganda had suffered a power crisis that had cost the country over $1 billion in form of subsidies and a non-quantified economic cost.

“The unnecessary and uncalled for “war of supremacy” on both Karuma and Isimba is not properly managed may lead the country into another power crisis and in the process will also cause a huge financial loss,” Mubiru noted.

Mubiru’s letter confirms what sources in the sector had revealed to The Independent that the fight amongst the officials had become personal and crippled the institutions ability to work together to deliver these critical projects.

UEGCL, as the implementing agency, was supposed to be in charge of the supervision. But the officials at Energy locked it out at the time the contract with the contractor was being signed. Interestingly, the Energy Ministry entered a tripartite MoU between electricity transmitter, UETCL and UEGCL appointing the latter as the implementer of the two projects. UEGCL is also mandated to manage all dams in the country, but the Energy Ministry officials signed the contract for the dams and hired a supervisor, Energy Infratech, to oversee construction.

Furious Museveni

Frustrated by Kabagambe’s Amber House clique, Isabalija decided to take the fight to save the dams to President Museveni. As this story reveals, although the Isabalija team severally attempted to bring these issues to the attention of the President, they soon discovered that a well-organised network at State House was ensuring that Museveni never gets wind of the issues. To beat the network, Isabalija and team hatched a plan to meet personally with the President and succeeded at some point in mid-March. And that is how the Karuma, Isimba dam scandal exploded.

The March meeting took place at the presidential lodge in Kyankwazi on the sidelines of the 10-days meeting of the newly elected ruling party legislators.

In that meeting, Isabalija and team revealed to President Museveni that if the constructions problems at Karuma and Isimba are not fixed, there was trouble. The dams might a few years after completion require constant repairs, fail to produce full capacity or end up breaking down completely, President Museveni was told.

All these are scary scenarios for President Museveni who has hinged the prosperity programmes of his government on the provision of adequate electricity for industry and domestic consumption. Currently, Uganda has three major active dams; the 250 MW Bujagali power dam and Nalubale and Kiira.

Uganda’s actual power generation capacity stands at 550 MegaWatt and peak demand is 489 MegaWatts. Yet demand grows by 22 percent every year. That is why Isimba and Karuma, which promise to add a staggering 783MW, are seen as a major relief.

The government has also borrowed the biggest chunk of the cash at interest from China’s Exim bank and must repay with interest. But more worryingly, these scenarios mean that Uganda’s electricity needs have to remain unmet despite this heavy expenditure.

That very day, President Museveni summoned an intelligence team with expertise in engineering and directed them to visit Karuma and Isimba dam sites and verify the information about shoddy work.

He also wrote to Irene Muloni, the Energy Minister, raised the same concerns and directed her to suspend the works until the mistakes are corrected, reinforce the supervisor or dismiss them all together.

Meanwhile, the intelligence team visited the two sites and unearthed even more worrying information regarding the dams. A source told The Independent that President Museveni met with this team twice at State House Entebbe and again at one of his country homes.

A source revealed that President Museveni was very furious especially at the last meeting where he decided his intervention.

That same day, April 5, he penned a letter to Muloni informing her that he had confirmed the issues he raised in his March letter.

He said that while most of shortcomings had been raised by the supervisor in communication to the contractor in 2015 and always copied to MEMD, the latter had not taken any decisive action on all these issues. Museveni was also concerned that even UEGCL, the implementing agency for the project, has raised these issues through the Project Management Consultants (PMCs) and lately the Panel of Experts (PoEs) but the ministry continued with inaction yet work on the project is continuing.