The Auditor General’s report for the Financial year ended 30th June 2021 has cited that one of the reasons why power transmission line projects are moving at a slow pace is due to irregularities in compensation and acquisition of right of way.
The report shows that the delays in undertaking the construction of the transmission lines have been largely attributed to the inadequacies in the compensation of Project Affected Persons (PAPs). And the challenges faced in “Acquisition of the Right of Way (ROW)” have led to delayed implementation of a number of projects in the Energy Sector.
According to the report, government has spent significant amounts in compensation of PAPs and in a period of 5 years, Financial Years between 2016/17 to 2019/20, a total of Shs.564.57Bn has been spent in compensations of PAPs, Grid Extension and Reinforcement Project (GERP) and the Mputa Transmission lines inclusive.
However, irregularities and overvaluation of land by the PAPs have always caused delays. According to the report, 56 per cent of the PAPs for GERP and Mputa projects were not properly identified, and this resulted in a mismatch between the number of PAPs appearing on the payment files and the survey reports and valuation reports prepared by the Chief Government Valuer.
Because of the mismatch in the number of PAPs on the payment files the budgeting, disbursement, and absorption of compensation funds were not properly managed, leading to budget slacks.
Although the Survey and Valuation Reports are supposed to guide in budgeting for compensations and management prepared budget estimates, they did not which resulted in overbudgeting to the tune of Shs111.3Bn.
This was because the valuation process was marred with a number of irregularities, which included; the use of un-updated district compensation rates; and unverified legal interests in the land; resulting in unnecessary revaluations and ligation which in turn delayed the Risk Assessment in Audit Planning (RAP) processes, thus affecting timely project completion.
“I noted of the released compensation amount of Shs.21.5Bn for both GERP and Mputa Projects, only Shs.5.86Bn (27 per cent) was paid to PAPs, thus resulting in unspent funds to the tune of Shs15.64Bn (73 per cent). This mostly affected the GERP Project which had Shs.13.17Bn not utilized, while Mputa had Shs.1.66Bn,” said Auditor General John F. S. Muwanga in the report.
Also, significant delays were noted in the compensation of PAPs. 1,109 PAPs (52.2 per cent) for Mputa and 821 (35 per cent) for the GERP Transmission Line remained unpaid by the time of concluding the audit (November 2021). This was mainly caused by outstanding grievances whereby 52 per cent and 15 per cent of the grievances remained unresolved for GERP and Mputa Projects, respectively.
The report also discovered that out of 149 PAPs identified, only 93 were resettled, leaving 56 PAPs not resettled. This was due to the number of inadequacies in the construction of the resettlement houses which included; irregular payments to contractors, delayed progress of works, discrepancies in drawing specifications and poor materials used for construction, and a number of defects that were not rectified.
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